Telco promotion programmes under scrutiny

>> The price is right for small telcos

The Ministry of Information and Communications’ (MIC) Telecom Department has already demanded Beeline’s operator (Gtel) halt providing its “Billionaire” promotional fee package amid signs of dumping sale.

According to the department’s head Pham Hong Hai, the department worked with Beeline’s operator and asked the firm to clarify its Billionaire package figures.

“If the operator does not handle its accountability responsibility, it will have to stop providing that package to the market,” said Hai, adding that for the sim cards of the Billionaire package which were activated by users, the department will later make appraisals after getting the operator’s written response.

MIC deputy minister Le Nam Thang assumed stricter control measures would be taken towards telecom firms’ fee packages and sales promotion programmes since inadequate promotion actions, such as selling services at unrealistic cheap prices, could hurt other service providers as well as local telecom market.

“Service packages of any other telecom operators, if impinging on state competition rules, could incur a severe penalty,” said Thang.

Since fee levels are sensitive in mobile telecom services, MIC inspectors would keep closer eyes on promotion programmes and fee package roll-outs of telcos, said Thang.

“The MIC will possibly enact relevant documents on telecom fee management in early 2012 to supersede former documents to ensure a healthy market performance,’ said Hai.

Reality shows that Vietnam’s young telecom market exploded in the 2008-2009 when service providers raced for bigger market slices through impressive fee promotions. Local service providers’ average revenue per user rate shed to just $5-6/subscriber/month in 2008-2009 from $8-12 in 2007.