Mobile money service attracts 2.2 mln users

Of the customers, 69% are from rural and mountainous areas, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The service are jointly offered on a trial basis by three leading telecommunications service providers Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone. Viettel has roughly 1.4 million mobile money users, VinaPhone, 700,000, and MobiFone, nearly 500,000.

Viettel and VinaPhone customers can transfer money from Mobile Phone accounts to bank accounts and vice versa. In the past, they had to deposit or withdraw money at transaction offices or authorized agents of the mobile network operators.

As of late September, Vietnam had nearly 120 million mobile phone subscribers, including some 93.7 million using smartphones, according to the ministry.