[Vietcong] Metfone’s major fibre expansion

Buddhist monks walk past a shop selling Metfone top-up cards on Street 240 in Phnom Penh yesterday. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan)

Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Tom Brennan and Don Weinland
The Phnom Penh Post

Metfone has claimed to control more than 80 percent of Cambodia’s fibre-optic network, allowing it to reach every commune in the Kingdom.

The firm said it contributed 16,000 kilometres of fibre-optic backbone to Cambodia’s total of about 20,000 kilometres, citing a February report from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The last 20 percent was split between Telecom Cambodia and Cambodia Fibre Optic Communication Network Company (CFOCN), the company said.

Metfone, which is owned by Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese military, claimed its cable deployment, all of which has been done since the company received an investment licence in 2006, was “13 times as high as the total national optical backbone developed by the whole country during previous 10 years”.

[Viet Army's] Viettel dominates fibre coverage in Cambodia

Monday 22 August 2011
Telecomparer

Vietnamese telecommunications firm Viettel has rolled out over 16,000km of fibre optic cables for its mobile operator in Cambodia, Metfone. Viettel now has the largest internet coverage in Cambodia, Viet Nam Business News writes. According to a report from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Cambodia (MPTC), cable network coverage in the country has increased 17 fold in five years and Metfone has achieved 80 percent network coverage.

China vs Vietnam [-Chinese money vs. Viet Army Telco.]

Thursday, 11 November 2010
David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

China’s commercial influence has grown in Cambodia with the signing of a refinancing deal for mobile provider Mobitel, according to international commentators, who said the People’s Republic may leverage its business interests for political advantage.

Last Thursday, Cambodian conglomerate The Royal Group signed a US$591 million deal to refinance its subsidiary Mobitel with the Bank of China.

It will enable The Royal Group to pay off a $421 million debt as well as fund future capital expenditures.

One week on, political and economic commentators said there were likely political considerations with the agreement – a viewpoint government and company officials have rejected.

“At the moment anything China does is viewed as having ulterior motives,” Carlyle Thayer, a politics professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy, a school managed by the University of New South Wales, told The Post.

“China has always manipulated loans to suit larger political purposes,” he said, highlighting the potential for a power play between Vietnam and China in the telecommunications sector.

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications statistics show Mobitel is the largest mobile provider by subscriber numbers, while Metfone – a subsidiary of the Vietnamese military – has grown to become the second biggest.

China and Vietnam had been engaged in “something of a tussle” over influence in Cambodia since the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, Thayer said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SOEUN SAY

...read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.

Facebook Being Blocked In Cambodia?

Thursday, 08 July 2010
By Tharum Bun
Eurasia Review

Cambodian Internet users today confirmed they're unable to access world's popular social networking site Facebook. The inaccessibility happens to subscribers of Metfone, which is owned by the Vietnamese military subsidiary Viettel.

Users get a message of 'Request timed out' when a user tries by pinging facebook.com, despite the connection being configured to use Google DNS or Open DNS. However, using freely available web proxies along with OpenDNS to access the site works.

According to Facebookers, a site that provides information about Facebook users, there are currently nearly 10,000 in Cambodia using the site every day.

Currently, other ISPs are not affected by this issue. Metfone users have to go through Facebook site via this IP address: 69.63.181.11, while those with WiCam access the site via 69.63.189.11.

Late last year, bloggers in Vietnam reported on the issue when many leading Internet Service Providers began blocking Facebook. Vietnamese blogger Huy Zing detailed in his blog post, FAQ on Vietnam block of Facebook.

VN sets its sights on dominating Cambodia’s telecom market

25/02/2010

VietNamNet Bridge – The big telecommunication and information technology groups in Vietnam like Viettel, FPT and VTC are looking to Cambodia with expansion in mind.

Viettel is now the largest Vietnamese telecom investor in Cambodia. It launched the Metfone mobile network one year ago. After six months, the Viettel Cambodia topped the network, accounting for 42 percent of the total number of base transceiver stations (BTS), 88 percent of the total optical cable and second for subscribers in Cambodia.

This year Viettel Cambodia aims to earn $250 million in revenue and have 3,000 second-generation (2G) BTS, 1,500 3-G BTS and 15,000-16,000km of optical cable.

FPT Telecom has been involved in telecom business in Cambodia for six months, mainly by selling frequency bands at Vietnam-Cambodia border gates. FPT’s general director Nguyen Thanh Nam said that it is the time for FPT Telecom to enter Cambodia to directly serve users. The company plans to cooperate with Mekong Net, one of the two biggest Cambodian IT firms.

Most recently, VTC group introduced the VTC Online Cambodia Company and its first products and services for the Cambodian market.

Nguyen Viet Hung, managing director of VTC Online Cambodia, said that the firm’s products are totally “Khmermizing” and would be put online in late February. The first products are entertainment, education programmes and cultural information.

Competition

Entering the Cambodian market, the most “dangerous” rivals for FPT are perhaps not local firms but Viettel.

“Viettel is expanding investment in Cambodia but as in Vietnam, Viettel’s top priority are mobile services so if FPT Telecom is agile, we can rule the Internet market, Nguyen Thanh Nam said.

However, FPT Telecom’s plans may not go smoothly because Viettel recently stated to strive for a holding of 46 percent of the fixed phone market, 90 percent of the mobile market and 90 percent of the broadband Internet market in Cambodia by 2011.

On June 1 2009, Viettel Cambodia became the first provider of multi-telecom services in Cambodia, including channel leasing, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), broadband Internet, mobile and fixed phone services.

Content services are also promising for Vietnamese investors. Thanh Nam disclosed that FPT Telecom considers Internet facilities as a way of developing content services in the future.

However, FPT Telecom is not a big name in content services in Cambodia just as it is not a big supplier of content services in Vietnam.

The opportunity for VTC in the content service market in Cambodia seems to be bigger because VTC’s subsidiary, VTC Intercom has always obtained 300 percent of growth rate annually for content services in Vietnam since its establishment in late 2006. This year VTC plans to open four branches in Siem Reap, Battambang, Preah Sihanouk and Kampong Cham. It will offer electronic services related to trade, banking, sports, music and fashion.

The rivals of VTC in Cambodia in the content service market are local firms. Mike Gaertner, managing director of the CIDC, the distributor of the most popular online game in Cambodia – Justice X Wars II, spoke to the Phnom Penh Post Office: “They (VTC) will divide the market in two parts. CIDC will react and VTC will react too. It is an interesting moment for the online game industry in Cambodia”.

CIDS currently has more than 120,000 subscribers.

Potential market

Apart from the competitive mobile market with nine networks, including big firms from Malaysia, Thailand, Sweden, etc., other markets in Cambodia are very promising.

According to Nguyen Thanh Nam, the broadband Internet market is still in its infancy but some good signs have arisen. In the last six months, charge for 1Mb transmission have dropped from $1,000 to $300 and will continue falling. “The fall in charges will push demand up,” Nam said.

An official from Viettel said that only 0.12 percent of Cambodian people are Internet subscribers. Viettel aims to raise the rate to 3 percent over the next three years.

As to the content service market, the Phnom Penh Post Newspaper commented: “The local market is still broad for development in comparison with neighboring countries”.

The CIDC’s Gaertner was very optimistic, saying that his firm is not afraid to compete with new rivals from Vietnam because: “Vietnam has 18 million Internet users, 10 million of them are gamers. I hope the same thing will take place in Cambodia”.

Viettel becomes [Yuon] military’s first economic group

A ceremony held in Hanoi January 12 marked the upgrade of the military’s telecom company, Viettel, into the Viettel Group (Photo: dddn)

Wednesday,Jan 13,2010
Saigon Giai Phong (Vietnamese Communist Party)

The Ministry of National Defense’s upgraded its telecom company Viettel into an economic group January 12.

A board of directors will run the group under a general director who will be nominated by the Minister of National Defense.

The military set up Viettel in 1999. Its turnover has increased from VND40 billion (US$2 million) then to VND60 trillion last year.

Viettel holds a 37.5 percent share of the country’s telecom market, including a 42.5 percent share of its mobile phone market.

Viettel has the largest network with 24,000 base transmission stations and 100,000 kilometers of cable covering every district in the country and 75 percent of its communes.

It became the first telecom company to invest abroad, setting up telecom networks in Laos and Cambodia.

VN investment in Cambodia reached US$1.5 bn

Tue, November 17, 2009
Rasmei Kampuchea
Asia News Network

Phnom Penh : Vietnamese investors consider Cambodia as a big potential investment destination in the future. So far, its investment in Cambodia has reached US$1.5 billion in the last few years in different sectors such as construction, agriculture, and banking sector.

Tran Bac Ha, chief of a delegation of Vietnamee investors told Prime Minister Hun Sen on October 16 that Vietnam government allowed three Vietnamese companies to invest in Cambodia in real estate, construction and agriculture.

Tran Bac Ha added that Vietnamese company planned to buy in 2010 between 300 000 and 400 000 tonnes of paddy from Cambodia to boost Cambodian economy and reduce poverty.

Recently, Vietnamese investors planned to plant rubber trees on 50 000 hectare in the Northeast of the country and they put in place the mobile phone company, Viettel, and at the same time, Vietnamese airline company has invested in running the Cambodian National Airline called "Cambodia Angkor Air". The joint venture investment costs $100 millions, of which , Cambodia holds 51 per cent and the rest belongs to Vietnamese side.

While the diplomatic row has increased between Thailand and Cambodia, Some Thai leaders threatened to close the border. But, in his reaction, Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened to stop buying Thai products and in stead using products from other countries.

Viet military-run telco installs 1,100 base transmission stations in Cambodia

Viettel installs 1,100 base transmission stations in Cambodia

Tuesday, 14 April 2009
TeleGeography

Viettel Cambodia, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s military-run telecoms service provider Viettel, has increased mobile coverage in Cambodia through the installation of 1,100 base transmission stations (BTSs), VietNamNet has reported. The cellco, which launched commercial services in Cambodia under the name Metfone in February 2009, said it would increase the number of BTSs in the country to more than 3,000 by the end of the year with the aim of providing coverage to the whole of the country. Metfone claims to be the only operator in Cambodia to charge for calls on a per-second basis and according to VietNamNet signed up 500,000 subscribers during a three-month trial period, which began in late 2008.

Vietnam military telco expands Cambodia business

HANOI, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Vietnam military firm Viettel will help form a commercial bank and a hydro-power construction firm to operate in Cambodia, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Friday.

The unlisted Hanoi-based company would spend $1.2 million on an 8 percent stake in the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Stock Bank, which aimed to serve Vietnamese firms doing business in Cambodia, VNA said.

Viettel, fully owned by the army, had also decided to invest 120 billion dong ($7.4 million) in a 5 percent stake in EVN Cambodia Co., which would build hydro power plants on the Mekong river, the VNA report said. >

It quoted a Viettel official as saying the company was also finalising talks on forming a telecoms venture with Laos Asia Telecom and would hold a 49 percent stake.

Viettel's business in Laos and its new interest in Cambodia, where it already provides telephone services, mark another step in its plan to expand in the region.

Early last month, officials of the firm said Viettel planned to offer express mail and other postal services in Singapore and Thailand.

Viettel has become a dominant telecoms player this year, seizing about one-third of Vietnam's mobile phone market share.

It was Vietnam's first telecoms firm to invest abroad when it started Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) services in Cambodia late last year, then mobile phone and Internet services. ($1=16,162 dong)

After military invasion, now comes communist VN liberation army's mobile phone service invasion

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Viettel to take mobile service to Cambodia by year-end

Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

The Vietnamese military telecoms giant Viettel is set to provide mobile service in Cambodia by the end of this year, an official announced Wednesday.

Deputy Director-General Nguyen Manh Hung said his company would first have to complete the US$27 million infrastructure construction in Cambodia.

Hung said at present, his company accounts for some 25 percent of the market for international Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) and over 50 percent of international channel leasing in Cambodia.

Viettel was expected to receive the official license for providing landline phone service in that country next month, Hung added.

Besides, the company would soon establish a joint venture with a Laotian business partner to provide telecoms services in Laos.

Since its inception in 2004, Viettel has become one of the top telecoms giants besides Vietnam Posts and Telecoms Group (VNPT) and Vietnam Electricity Telecom Company (EVN).

Reported by Hoang Ly – Compiled by Luu Thi Hong