Vietnam Has 17 Million Mobile Phone Subscribers Now

October 8, 2006 – 6:33 pm

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I admit that against a population of 83.6 million, 17 million mobile phone connections is not a high figure. However with just $620 GNI per capita, this is a success story in the cell phone world. At the beginning of the year, the number of mobile phone subscribers was 10 million. So, this year, Vietnam witnessed additional 7 million subscribers- good for the consumers and good for the mobile phone operators too. VietNamNet Bridge talked about further growth:

In the race to gain market shares during the past nine months, MobiFone, with 6 million subscribers has ousted VinaPhone to take the top spot.

The young but energetic Viettel has also caught up to VinaPhone with 5 million subscribers, followed by S-Fone with 1 million subscribers, the ministry said.

Observers forecast that mobile phone network operators can attract about 10 million newcomers this year, doubling 2005’s figures.

As you already know, Vietnam is not a rich country. In fact, most mobile phone companies did not bother about the country even 5-6 years ago. Now, they are trying to get a market share here. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung- everyone is trying to shine in this market. Of course, the main demand is of cheap handsets. By 2010, the number of mobile phone users in Vietnam is expected to 36 million. Just imagine, even if one fourth of the users buy new handsets every year, then the size of handset market will be nearly 10 million. Quite a big market, isn’t it?

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