Firms furious over recent 3G fee hike

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On October 24 the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association complained to the government that Viettel, Mobifone, and Vinaphone’s recent, abrupt hikes in service fees were causing their input costs to soar. They were talking about cars’ itinerary supervisory equipment (called the black box) reports to administration centres.

On October 21, dozens of black boxes were found to be out of service because their subscriber accounts had run out of credit.

Director at Vinh Hien Electronics Trading Company, providing black box supply and management services, Ta Cong Thuan said that in the second half of this month, numerous transport firms came forward astonished with the rise in their black box 3G fees from VND10-40,000 per month per unit to VND100-150,000 ($5-7) per month.

Transport businesses were concerned when the Ministry of Information and Communications green lighted a 20 per cent hike in service fees, and in fact some fees have gone up four and even 10 fold.

They are complaining that only a few packages saw fee increases of 10-20 per cent while most rose by 40 per cent. Viettel’s Dcom Laptop (Laptop Easy) service more than tripled.

Before October 16 the package charged VND60 per megabyte but after it rose to VND200 per MB.

Other leading telcos made similar moves. VinaPhone’s EzCOM EZ0 and MobiFone’s Fast Connect FCO packages, similar to Laptop Easy, also raised their fees from VND60/MB to VND200/MB.

According to deputy chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association Than Van Thanh, if black box fee hikes are not soon mitigated companies may turn off the system in many of their vehicles, resulting in tens of thousands not under direct management by their controlling businesses. Even worse, operating without them companies may lose their licenses.

Along the same line, last week Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai demanded fee increases by the telcos be reviewed for potentially violating the competition law.

On the sidelines of the National Assembly on-going session, Hai said there would be an investigation into whether Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone colluded in raising their fees.

“Alliances that exercise monopoly are one of the negative aspects of a market economy, and are forbidden in most countries, including Vietnam. Any violations will be responded to with swift sanctions,” Hai said.

Deputy chairman of the Vietnam Standards and Consumers Association Nguyen Manh Hung said the government needed to handle this matter quickly and prudently to ensure market stability.

Former head of the Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) Dinh Thi My Loan said the price hikes were highly suspicious as they were announced simultaneously by Vietnam’s three largest telecom providers and the new fees are nearly the same throughout.

“The VCA should require these companies to explain their actions and co-operate with any investigation into a joint pricing agreement,” she added.