Viettel Mobile

Viettel Group

Type	Group (Tập đoàn)
Industry	Mobile telecommunications
Founded	2004
Headquarters	Hanoi, Vietnam
Products	Mobile networks, Telecom services
Revenue	3 billion VND ($1bn)[1]
Number of employees	80,000
Parent	Ministry of Defense (Vietnam)
Slogan	Say it your way
Website	vietteltelecom.vn

Viettel Group (full name in Vietnamese: Tập đoàn Viễn thông Quân đội) is Vietnam's largest mobile network operator. It is a state-owned enterprise wholly owned and operated by the Ministry of Defence.

As of 2014, Viettel currently has 80,000 employees inside and outside the country.^[2] Viettel currently serves 63 million subscribers.^[3]

Products

Viettel introduced 3G services in early 2010 (after Vinaphone and MobiFone), including video call, mobile broadband 3G, TV mobile, video-on-demand, online music.^[4]

Viettel has ambitious plans to enter the hardware market. It wants to develop and sell mobile phones including smart phones and TVs. It started producing mobile phones in late 2012, while discontinuing a co-operation with China's Huawei, which had previously produced Viettel phones.^[5]

In 2013, VM has begun production of military-grade radio equipment for the PAVN.^[6][7] In 2014, the company announced that they are making UAVs.^[8][9]

Subsidiaries and joint-ventures

Vietnam Military Telecommunications Group (Tập đoàn Viễn thông Quân đội), the parent of the Viettel brand, also owns a number of other companies.

• Vietnam Distribution (also Viettel Import and Export Co.) is an electronics retail company. It is one of the official distributors of Hewlett Packard and Fujitsu in Vietnam.^[10][11] HP is supporting Viettel in developing a retail and after-sale services network.^[10]
• Viettel New Service Development
• Viettel Post
• Viettel Investment and Real Estate
• Viettel International Investment
• Viettel Football Training Center

In May 2007 Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. established a joint venture with Viettel Mobile to provide Internet data centre services in Vietnam.

Viettel has successfully developed telecommunication services in Laos, Cambodia, Haiti, Mozambique and Peru. It made a profit from its foreign operations for the first time in 2012, mainly based on profits from Cambodia and Laos.^[12]

Global Operations

Map showing countries with Viettel Group presence

Viettel Global Investment JSC (Viettel Global) handles all the countries foreign investments.^[13] Viettel has successfully developed telecommunication services in three continents, Asia,Africa and the Americas. It made a profit from its foreign operations for the first time in 2012, mainly based on profits from Cambodia and Laos and recorded a $1.2 billion revenue from foreign operations in the year 2014.^[14]

The company plans to invest over $2.23 billion within the period of 2015-2017 for foreign expansion purposes. By 2017 the Viettel global market will cover an area of over 350 million potential subscribers. Viettel Global plans to sell 10% of its stake to obtain further capital to facilitate expansion and as of January 2015 has already begun laying infrastructure in Myanmar.^[15] The company focuses to expanding in developing countries and has anticipated expansion in Congo (DRC), Bangladesh, Nepal, North Korea, Belarus and Ukraine in the near future.^[16]

Operator	Country	Began Operation	Subscribers	Notes	Reference
Unitel	Laos	26 February 2008	N/A	Joint operation between Viettel Global and Lao Asia Telecom	[17]
Metfone	Cambodia	19 February 2009	N/A	Largest phone operator in Cambodia with 46% market share.	[18]
Natcom	Haiti	10 September 2011	1,200,000	Joint venture between Viettel Global (60%) and Haiti(40%).	[19]
Movitel	Mozambique	10 January 2012	5,000,000	Leading mobile operator and coverage covers over 80% of the country land area.	[20]
Telemor	East Timor	1 July 2013	400,000	Owns over 47% of the market share and began making a profit after 6 months of operation.	[21]
Nexttel	Cameroon	12 September 2014	2,000,000	First 3G operator in the country.	[22]
Bitel	Peru	16 October 2014	1,000,000	First foreign market where country GDP exceeds Vietnam.	[23][24]
Lumitel	Burundi	30 May 2015	600,000	Largest operator in Burundi within 1 month of operation.	[25]
Halotel	Tanzania	15 October 2015	N/A	Placed over 18,000 km of optic fiber cables	[26]

Market share and competitors

Viettel had a market share (estimated based on revenues) of 40.67% in 2012.^[27] Its main competitors are Vinaphone (owned by VNPT) with 30% market share and MobiFone with 17.9%.^[27] They control almost 90% of the market, with the rest controlled by Vietnamobile with 8%, Gmobile (formerly Beeline) with 3.2% and S-Fone with 0.1%.^[27] Viettel reported having 58.9 million customers, while Vinaphone and MobiFone estimated to have 70 million and Gmobile and Vietnamobile 10 million.^[27]

Viettel acquired EVN Telecom in December 2011 and officially finished transferring accounts one year later.^[27]

Viettel is the only provider in some remote parts of Vietnam, such as Meo Vac.

In 2014,Viettel plans to invest $1 billion in a new third-generation (3G) mobile phone network in Tanzania.^[28]

Viettel Mobile won Most Popular Operator at 2005, 2006 and 2007 Vietnam Mobile Awards.^[29][30]

References

External links

• Viettel Mobile Official Site
• Viettel Corporate