The Military Industry-Telecoms Group (Viettel) has set a goal of attracting an additional 10 million 4G subscribers in Vietnam this year, up to 62 percent compared to 43.5 percent last year.
To realise that goal, Viettel has cooperated with other suppliers to distribute 4G smartphones at prices lower than 1.5 million VND each and 4G feature phones at a price of 400,000 VND each.
The group will also install more than new 2,400 4G BTS and cover some 3,700 weak signal areas to enable its customers to better experience 4G services.
Last year, the group achieved a growth rate of 6.4 percent and its overseas investment in telecoms rose by 24.4 percent.
In domestic telecoms, Viettel’s key growth motivation in 2019 is the turnover recorded from data service. Data service is expected to continue playing a key role in helping the group achieve growth in telecoms this year because data usage in Vietnam is still lower than that in the region. On average, a customer in Vietnam uses 5-7G of data a month while those in Laos or Cambodia use 12-15G per customer a month.
This year, Viettel aims to increase its profit in domestic telecoms by 4.3 percent against last year. This target is challenging because the telecoms market has reached a saturation point, where the telecoms sector’s profit is flat or falls.
The group also targets to become the leading company in Vietnam in terms of fiber optic internet revenue this year with the fixed service turnover rising by 23.2 percent.