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MobiFone, Vinaphone – both run by the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) – the military-run Viettel, and a consortium between EVN Telecom and Hanoi Telecom were the successful applicants, getting licenses valid for 15 years.
The two firms that did not get them are Korean joint-venture SFone and GTel.
The applicants were rated based on their existing and proposed coverage of residential areas in the country, how long they will take to launch the service, how much they can pay as a deposit, and infrastructure, management, and financial resources.
Based on these criteria, Viettel achieved the highest score of 967 out of 1,000.
Vinaphone was second with 620.9, Mobifone third with 563.9m, and EVN Telecom-Hanoi Telecom last with 430.9.
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the licensing was done very carefully based on telecom laws, international precedents, and the nation’s World Trade Organization commitments.
Announcing the licensing decision at a ceremony on April 2, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said the four licensees have pledged to invest a minimum of VND33.82 trillion (US$2 billion) to develop their services within three years.
They have promised to pay a deposit of VND8.1 trillion, he added.
Mr. Thang said the four would have three months to wrap up legal procedures for network installation, finalize the tariff regime, and pay the deposit, failing which the licenses would be revoked.
In other conditions, failure to provide 3G services within nine months of getting the license will see them penalized, and failure to cover 10 percent of the country’s residential areas within 24 months will see them losing their licenses
