Viettel Ba Ria - Vung Tau Heightening Life Value

 

Since the start of August 2009, Viettel has expanded its mobile communication services to all islands and seawaters in Vietnam. Accordingly, Ba Ria-Vung Tau houses four base transceiver stations in Lon Mount (Vung Tau City), Ba Kieng Mount (Xuyen Moc, Minh Dam Mount (Long Dien) and Con Dao Island to serve the communication demand of fishermen as well as storm forecasting and search - rescue activities.

 

“The coverage of mobile services, about 100 km offshore, is making significant changes to the local people’s lives and related localities. The information transparency at sea and on the mainland will surely improve the living conditions of fishermen as well as local socioeconomic development,” Nguyen Van Tru, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, said at the ceremony to inaugurate the four base transceiver stations in Vung Tau City.

 

Mr Nguyen Huu Tuan, Director of Viettel Ba Ria-Vung Tau Branch, said: Vietnam has 81 offshore base transceiver stations. The facilities in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province can cover 61 nautical miles offshore (or 100 km). Sailors and fishermen can use the Viettel mobile network to communicate. Foreign ships can use the service if they registered roaming services. So far, there have been no suppliers of offshore broadcasting equipment. Thus, the offshore broadcasting technology and equipment is the creation of Viettel.

 

According to the statistics of sea guard force, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province has some 6,000 fishing boats with 60,000 fishermen, excluding cargo freighters and other means of transport. They always have very high demand for communications but none of mobile service networks extends their coverage offshore. “This is a new and potential market segment; thus, Viettel is seeking plans to expand the service coverage to serve fishermen and support search and rescue activities at sea,” he said.

 

After using Viettel offshore service, Do Duy Thanh, Director of Binh Minh Seafood Co., Ltd, said: The service is good within 30 nautical miles while his handset receives no signal at a distance of 61 nautical miles from the seashore. Many fishermen and fishing boats are using mobile phones to communicate with the mainland in addition to their radio walkie-talkies. Mr Dang Van Thong, a fisherman in Vung Tau City, said: Viettel needs to expand its services to farther locations to help fishermen connect with their relatives in the mainland more easily.

 

To create the opportunity for the poor to use telephones, Viettel has launched many promotion programmes, presented free cordless phones (Home Phone) to the poor, free mobile phone SIM cards for students and soldiers with a bonus account of VND25,000 and offered free internet connections for schools and universities. Viettel Ba Ria - Vung Tau Branch is one of best performers of these policies to popularise telephony, telecom and communication services in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province. These achievements are resulted from efforts of all branch staffs.

 

Mr Tuan added “We always bear in our mind that assisting the poor, disadvantaged people and students is not only the responsibility of a company to the society but also the tradition of Vietnamese people.”

Therefore, Viettel Ba Ria - Vung Tau Branch completes business plans assigned by the Viettel Corporation and actively takes part in social development activities which help the poor and disadvantaged people to fill the geographic distance divide to approach and use telecom services and assist students to learn better. These activities, in return, will deepen the Viettel trademark in the heart of the people. Tuan pledged to continue providing best customer care services in the coming time.

After nearly 20 years of development, Viettel Corp has established a strong foothold on the market by providing such services as international direct dialling, 178 international dialling, landline telephone service, internet service, mobile phone service, etc. Viettel is now the No. 1 mobile phone service provider in Vietnam with more than 20 million subscribers. The Corporation’s landline telephone service has been signed up by over 1.5 million subscribers, including many in remote regions.

 

In recent years, although the telecom market is under fierce competition, Viettel continued making fast but firm strides to become a top telecom service provider in Vietnam and to expand into other fields. In 2008, Viettel made revenues of US$2 billion. Viettel Mobile became the largest mobile network in Vietnam with more than 30 million subscribers and over 15,000 base transceiver stations.