Vietnam’s ICT revenue to top $55 billion in 2016: analyst

Vietnam’s information and communications technology (ICT) businesses will continue to do well this year to post revenues of over US$55 billion, up 35 percent from 2015, an analyst said in news website Saigon Times Online on Tuesday.

The strong growth is partly thanks to new and upcoming free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will give businesses entry to large markets including the US and Japan, Duy Tran of the US-headquartered market research company Frost & Sullivan said.

In another prediction, Tran said Vietnam’s telecommunication market will see “a positive growth,” as the competition among three giants Viettel, VNPT and MobiFone will become more heated, even though the market will start approaching its saturation point, he said.

With 122 million mobile subscribers, much higher than the country’s population of 91.7 million, Vietnamese telecommunication operators posted a combined revenue of VND520 trillion ($22.69 billion) in 2015.

It was a year-on-year increase of 70.4 percent, according to figures from the Ministry of Information and Communication. Military-run Viettel accounted for 42.8 percent of the revenues, and state-owned VNPT and MobiFone for 15.5 and 7 percent.

Tran said the competition will be especially strong in 4G services, even though they are now available only on a trial basis in select cities and provinces, and will not be officially launched until at least the end of the year.

As long as there are no big gaps in prices between 4G and 3G services, about 10-15 percent of 3G users, or 3-5 million people, will switch to the faster services, he said.

Source : http://www.thanhniennews.com/