City online for digital internet

VP Telecom will offer the Medianet service through the SCTV network in 10 areas of the city. The service, with a download capacity of 30 Mbps and upload speed of two Mbps, targets households, restaurants, hotels and internet cafes. Subscribers will enjoy free service for a month from now.
Medianet fees were reported to be similar to ADSL services, and the providers have not yet released their customer number targets. VP Telecom plans to launch a similar service in Hanoi this September with Vietnam Cable Television (VCTV).
Director of VP Telecom Nguyen Manh Bang said signing the contract a few months ago with SCTV, who had some 100,000 subscribers at the time, was an incredible success for the VP Telecom.
“The service is very promising,” Bang said.
Among the overwhelming number of internet service providers in the Ho Chi Minh City market, VP Telecom is the first to offer such a service. Others have focused on ADSL via telephone cable networks.
VNPT’s MegaVNN’s ADSL package with download and upload speeds of 384Kbps/128Kbps has the lowest monthly subscription fee of VND28,000 ($1.7) with a maximum charge of VND400,000 ($25.6), while the 2Mbps/640Kbps package charges a minimum of VND172,000 ($11) and a maximum VND908,000 ($58.2).
The country’s first providers of TV cable internet, the Vietnam New Generation Telecom (VNGT), through the network of Hanoi Television Broadcasting and Television Service Company, launched their services in Hanoi about six months ago.
The service has targeted Hanoi cable television accounts, including households and enterprises such as hotels and cafes with high demands for broadband internet connections.
For enterprises, the BizNet Cable package allows customers to download and upload at maximum levels of 10 Mbps/2 Mbps and costs around $14.7-83. The CableHome package for households offers the maximum download and upload levels of 4 Mbps/600 kbps, much higher than a dial-up connection of 64 kbps, and costs around $9.6.
The service was initially offered to some 52,000 Hanoi television cable accounts and 60,000 television receivers. The providers forecast having 5,000 subscribers by the end of the year, but the results after six months have been limited.
“The potential customer number is large, but the service area is narrow. We are aiming to cover other inner-city areas of Hanoi,” said Phan Ngoc Minh, director of VNGT. Minh said the service was still on a trial basis, and was not concerned with competing with VP Telecom or its partner.
The service providers started in certain districts of Hanoi, Trung Tu, Lang Ha and north-south Thanh Cong on March 15, and aim to cover Hanoi completely by 2006. The service is now available in Cau Giay district and will soon expand to Hai Ba Trung district.
The providers intend to offer extra services such as online gaming, conferences, home or office cameras and video-on-demand.