The hope of Viettel is to see that everyone has access to the Internet to experience various useful online applications anytime and anywhere. Besides the “30 million GB” program, Viettel has also debuted its Tomato Data package, without time limit for data usage, helping subscribers fully tap the Internet service package in the most convenient manner.
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Customers register for Viettel's services |
Viettel Telecoms Deputy Director General Nguyen Viet Dung affirmed, “Popularizing mobile Internet is a big target of Vietnam, which is of great significance, as we are joining Industry 4.0. To reach this target, the whole society needs to join the race. For individuals, they may donate used smartphones and SIM cards to those who haven’t got one or guide them how to access to the Internet on their mobile phones. For telecoms businesses, they are to prepare high quality Internet infrastructure and cover their services everywhere. To make contribution to this goal, Viettel offers 30 million GB of free data. We hope that subscribers help promote the program, bringing opportunities to have mobile Internet access to millions of people across Vietnam.”
By joining the program, subscribers may stand the chance to have 1GB free of charge and without time limit. Accordingly, those using prepaid or contracted mobile services provided by Viettel only have to text TOMD to 191. Subscribers may also join the program by hitting the website https://viettel.vn/tomatodata or using My Viettel application to “open the gift data box” from Viettel, inviting their relatives and friends to the program.
Vietnam is standing a great chance to popularize mobile Internet access to its people when the 3G/4G networks cover up to 95% of the population. The rate of smartphone users among mobile phone users increased by nearly 30% in the 2012-2017 period and tends to increase by 8-10% annually in the coming years (Source: GSM Association).
According to figures from the GSM Association, however, by the end of the second quarter of 2018, only 41% of cellular subscribers have had their mobile Internet access (3G/4G). Compared with other countries in the region, this is only the average rate. In Singapore, 100% of people enjoy mobile Internet access. The figure is 99.5% in Thailand. Even in Laos and Cambodia, these rates are 48 % and 61%, respectively.
For many reasons, there still remain a lot of Vietnamese people who haven’t had access to and benefited from mobile Internet services. Market research findings show that the biggest barrier is the high rates of charge for mobile Internet services in relation with users’ income, accompanied by the fear of losing control over the charge when registering to the services. This is also the reason why more Vietnamese people get access to public wifi hotspots than those using Internet data, despite the risks and limitations of wifi access.
Translated by Huu Duong