VietNamNet Bridge – The recent happenings in the telecom market
recently have raised the worries that the monopoly would return and frustrate
the current competitive market.
The monopoly has returned to some
telecom market segments. The transmission channel leasing market once witnessed
the existence of three enterprises. However, after EVN Telecom merged into
Viettel, only two big guys have been left to dominate the market, namely the
Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) and Viettel. Some telcos have
recently denounced VNPT of colluding with Viettel to raise the channel leasing
fees.
Regarding the problem, Pham Hong
Hai, Director of the Telecommunication Department of the Ministry of
Information and Communication said a lot of enterprises have been allowed to
provide transmission channel leasing services.
He also said FPT, Hanoi Telecom
and VTC all have long-distance transmission routes, thus enabling them to
provide long-distance channel services. However, they would still make further
investment to become capable to join the inner-city and inner-province network
market.
Hai tried to reassure the public
that his telecommunication department had a working session with enterprises
and requested VNPT and Viettel to re-negotiate with their clients.
However, Hai admitted that
Vietnam strives to have a competitive market, where three or four powerful
companies competing with each other to benefit consumers.
Tran Manh Hung, Director of the
Ban Mai Vietnam international law firm, has warned that the monopoly may return
to the market, and the “terrible things” in 1990s would come back. At that
time, clients had to beseech for the right to use telecom services, because
there was only one exclusive service provider.
“It would be very dangerous if
the telecom market relies on one or two network operators. The dominance of the
big guys and the death of small networks would not be a good scenario of the
telecom market,” Hung said.
Trinh Minh Chau, General Director
of Vietnamobile, has also warned that the one or two big enterprises may
capture the market, if the watchdog agency cannot find out reasonable solutions
to ensure the healthy development of the market.
The worries about the monopoly to
return to the telecom market are also the reason that has prompted economists
to stay against the proposed plan to merge MobiFone and VinaPhone – the two
biggest mobile networks now in Vietnam.
At present, both the mobile
networks belong to the VNPT, which comes contrary to the Telecommunication Law.
Therefore, VNPT has been told to restructure the mobile networks.
Since both VinaPhone and MobiFone
are the big bread earners for VNPT, the telecom giant cannot decide which
mobile network to keep and what to give up. In an effort to retain the two,
VNPT has proposed to merged VinaPhone and MobiFone.
However, the plan has been facing
the disagreement from economists, who believe that the merger, if occurs, would
be a step back in the process of restructuring enterprises.
Vo Tri Thanh, Deputy Director of
the Central Institute for Economic Management CIEM, affirmed at a recent
workshop on the development of the telecom market that MobiFone and VinaPhone
should not be merged, or this would severely spoil the current market.
Thanh, while saying that he can
see “problems” in the telecom market, emphasized that the healthy competition
should be seen as the fundamental of the market economy. Meanwhile, the merger
would come contrary to the principle of rivalry.
Hai said the final decision
relating to the fate of VinaPhone and MobiFone has not been made yet. However,
he said: “our viewpoint is that it is necessary to maintain at least three
service providers with equal power in the market.”
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