Telco yet to find buzz brand

>> Telco market looks to rate
>> New trademark for post-Beeline in the pipelines

More than a month later GTel Mobile will have to stop using Beeline brand, the brand using by Russian partner Vimpelcom in Indochina, under an agreement with Vimpelcom when it acquired entire 49 per cent stake of the Russian partner in the joint venture. GTel Mobile is a joint venture between the Global Telecommunications Corporation (GTel) and Vimpelcom.  After the stake acquisition in late April 2012, it was wholly owned by GTel.

About the new brand, GTel Mobile just said ‘The name Beeline will no longer be used among GTel Mobile products. The new brand will be developed capitalised on Beeline brand strong points and advantages.’

At this time the trademark Beeline is still used as usual. A big volume of SIM cards carrying Beeline brand have yet to be activated. At Hai Son Company, a GTel Mobile distribution agent, there are 1,519 Beeline SIM cards with numbers offered for sale through webpage Simbeeline.com.vn, but only nearly 700 SIM cards found buyers.

A GTel Mobile media representative said the company has nailed down an explicit plan for brand conversion.

“As negotiated, GTel Mobile will stop using Beeline brand by the end of October. Hence, later this month our company will unveil details about new brand as well as plan relevant to GTel Mobile operations after the brand conversion move,” said the representative.

At the time GTel Mobile acquired 49 per cent stake from partner Vimpelcom, the former’s general director Nguyen Van Du confirmed “After Vimpelcom conceived the idea for stake transfer, we looked at it as a good opportunity for GTel as Vietnam’s mobile phone market still has enormous growth potential.”

However, 2012 White Book on Information and Communication Technologies, just released by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), shows that telecom sector revenue in 2011 shed 26 per cent on-year, particularly revenue coming from mobile services slid 5.6 per cent to $5.42 billion in 2011 from $5.74 billion in 2010.

The MIC attributed sliding revenue to mobile services providers taking move to scale down service fees on the back of stiff market competition to woo customers.

The ICT White Book 2012 also indicates GTel Mobile’s market share in 2011 remained modest at 3.21 per cent, far below those of top three players Viettel, VinaPhone and  MobiFone.