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Tech trail in Vietnam. |
More than 200 telecom and other technology firms from 13 countries attended Vietnam Telecomp/Vietnam Electronics 2010 in Ho Chi Minh City, showing the latest developments of ICT and related electronics, with some players showing 3G mobile technology.
Speakers from Vietnamese enterprises and state agencies discussed the country's future ICT developments, business openings, cloud computing, mobile Internet and broadband, as well as IT applications in health care, finance and transportation.
The event was a high profile one for local giants like Vinaphone and MobiFone, Vietnam Data Communication Company (VDC) and FPT.
Foreign tech firms included IBM Vietnam, Cisco, Huawei, Siemens, Orange, ZTE, Ericsson, NTT DOCOMO, Amdocs, 3onedata and HTC Vietnam.
At least seven US firms, including Tyco Electronics (a producer of connections for wireless, cable and broadband) and optical communications company Source Photonics took part in the exhibition.
This year's event provided a commercial negotiation forum for various aspects of the telecom business, with Vietnam's telecom and ICT markets growing by great bounds since 3G mobile services were launched in October last year.
Vietnam now has 156 million phone subscribers, with about 90% of them users of mobile services.
Competition among telephone companies is also increasing; to gain a competitive advantage, Vietnamese players have had to upgrade technology and improve the quality of their services.
Early this month, VNPT inked a deal with Russia-based Altech Telecom to set up a joint venture, RusViet Telecom. The venture will apply fourth generation technology, after VNPT received a license for a pilot 4G service in October 2010.
Like VNPT, CDMA network S-Fone participated in hopes of finding new partners. Ho Hong Son, General Director of Saigon Postel Corp (SPT) that manages S-Fone, said SPT was looking to diversify services and further capitalise the network.
SPT has been running S-Fone since South Korean partner SK Telecom withdrew from the loss-making network. SK Telecom and SPT collaborated in 2001 under a contract to run S-Fone as a pioneer in CDMA tech application.
The ongoing price wars continued in Vietnam after S-Fone and Vietnamobile both reduced their tariffs for subscribers. Their decision to reduce rates followed after similar initiatives by Viettel, Vinaphone and MobiFone during the summer.
The exhibition from 17 to 20 November was organised by VNPT in conjunction with Hong Kong's Adsale Exhibition Services Ltd.
from Nguyen Quoc Uy, Ho Chi Minh City Office
(Image courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/thesuperph)
