Vietnam's telecoms market dials up massive revenue growth

Vietnam's telecoms industry posted nearly a 130 percent increase in total revenue in the first half of this year to VND213 trillion ($9.38 billion).

Military-run Viettel accounted for over half of the total, followed by Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group with 31 percent, and Mobifone with 10 percent.

The three providers all reported double-digit revenue growth, helped by subscribers moving from 2G to 3G services, together with the newly deployed 4G services, a report released by the Ministry of Information and Communications said.

4G services have been available in big cities since the beginning of this year, and the three operators are racing to deploy the service across the country by the year-end.

As of June this year, there were 130 million phone subscriptions in the country, the majority of which were on 2G and 3G. Meanwhile, the number of landline subscribers has fallen.

The number of wired broadband internet subscribers continued to increase in the first half, reaching over 10 million.

Leading provider Viettel said its total subscriptions has risen to about 100 million, with 61 million domestic users. The military-run group reported over $5.1 billion in revenue in the period, almost half of its annual target. On Monday it said its pre-tax profit from its nine overseas markets rose 155 percent on-year to $41 million in the first half.