Hanoi (VNA) –Vietnam’s telecommunications market has reached a saturation point and willfind it hard to attract new subscribers.

This could result in increasingly fierce competition among telecom providersfor their revenue and market share.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications (MIC) toldan international conference on tariffs and competition management held in Hanoirecently that competition has been mostly seen in terms of prices andpromotional programmes. In addition, local telecom providers increasingly facecompetition from social networks.

“The country’s telecoms market has developed broadly and rapidly over the lastdecade. The market now has 70 operating telecoms companies. Of which, 37 firmswere granted licences to establish network infrastructure while the remainderprovide telecommunications services,” Hung said.

By the end of June 2017, subscriber density reached 124 subscribers per 100people, that of mobile broadband was 50 subscribers per 100 people and fixedbroadband was 11 subscribers per 100 households.

Over the past 10 years, telecom services have improved. The revenue of localtelecom businesses has seen stable growth thanks to an increasing number of newsubscribers despite continuously decreasing tariffs.

The total revenue in the country’s telecom sector in 2016 rose 7.5 percent overthe previous year.

“However if competition through reducing tariffs and promotions continues inthe telecoms sector, the market could collapse, which would have a big impacton the operations of other economic and social industries,” he said, addingthat telecoms companies should change to better meet customers’ diversifieddemands.

He said the ministry has always supported firms in their production, trade andthe creation of applications and advanced technologies for the sector’sdevelopment and the economy as a whole.

Ashish Narayan, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)in Asia – Pacific region’s representative said the competition among telecomscompanies has no longer issues over tariffs but others such as transmissionlines and creativity of services to attract customers.

He added that experiences from Europe and the Republic of Korea have beenapplied for better competition.

The State management agencies should adjust regulations and managementmechanisms to facilitate the development of telecoms businesses and the market.

Cory Brader Leuchten from the US Department of Justice said in terms ofcompetition, the anti-monopoly factor should be given top priority to createhealthy development for the market and ensure benefits to customers.

In the US, laws on competitions and monopolies have followed trends in thesector, being updated with new articles to follow rapid developments in thetelecoms market.-VNA