Last updated: 9 Jun 2010 Update History
Report Status: Archived
Report Pages: 96
Analyst: Peter Evans
Publication Overview
This report provides a comprehensive overview of the trends and developments in the telecommunications and digital media markets in Vietnam. Subjects covered include:
Researcher:- Peter Evans
Current publication date:- June 2010 (16th Edition)
Next publication date:- June 2011
Executive Summary
This Annual Publication profiles the vibrant telecom market in Vietnam that has been attracting considerable attention for its creativity. Whilst by some measures the country is still in a comparatively early stage of its telecommunications development, Vietnam has been aggressively expanding its national infrastructure and growing its subscriber bases across all market segments. Progress in developing the mobile market has been especially impressive; and whilst the Internet market, and particularly the roll-out of broadband Internet, is still very much in the early development phase, the last three years have seen a significant surge in the country’s online access.
Vietnam has become the target for an energetic new round of investor interest of late. Even in the wake of the global financial crisis numerous, foreign telcos were turning their attention to this most significant of South East Asian markets. The market is proving highly attractive to investors at the moment. It is generally agreed that the country has come out of a period of wishful thinking – based on the belief that it could ‘go it alone.’
The government has overseen the introduction of a modest level of competition into the telecoms market and this, combined with a generally improved economic climate within the country, has triggered a round of strong growth in the telecom sector. More recently the move to allow an increased level of ‘equitisation’ (the Vietnamese government’s word for ‘privatisation’) has sent a clear message to investors that the rules are changing in a positive way and the investment door has been opened.
A significant milestone in this changing business environment was Vietnam’s accession to the WTO in 2007; it could be said that this effectively provided a formal confirmation of the changes that had been taking place. It has still not become completely clear, however, what form the government’s involvement in the telecom sector will take in the future. Also of some concern are the constant postponements of real action on the equitisation process. A somewhat surprising development within Vietnam itself has been the cross-sector interest in telecoms.
While there has been strong growth in Vietnam’s mobile sector (around 120 million subscribers early in 2010, 135% penetration), the country’s fixed line subscriber growth has not been so impressive. With the government seeming to be hedging somewhat on the fixed-line statistics, this market segment has been struggling to a certain degree over the last few years. It seems that growth has now flattened out. In the meantime, the government continues to demonstrate a certain ambivalence about the Internet; government reticence has not, however, stopped the Internet market from at least starting to move along a solid growth path. Internet user penetration was running at an impressive 25% in early 2009, with the increasingly ‘hot’ broadband segment of that market expanding at an annual rate of around 50%.
Category |
2009 |
2010 (e) |
Fixed-line services: |
|
|
|
19.0 million |
22.5 million |
|
35% |
18% |
|
22% |
25% |
|
70% |
78% |
Broadband Internet: |
|
|
|
2.97 million |
4.20 million |
|
44% |
40% |
|
3.4% |
4.7% |
|
15% |
20% |
Mobile services: |
|
|
|
111.4 million |
127.0 million |
|
46% |
15% |
|
5 million |
10 million |
|
5% |
8% |
|
130% |
140% |
(Source: BuddeComm)
Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.
Related Reports
Monitor critical insights with our AI-powered Market Intelligence Platform gathering and analyzing intelligence in real time. With AI trained to spot emerging trends and detect new strategic opportunities, our clients use TMT Intelligence to accelerate their growth.
If you want to know more about it, please see:
BuddeComm's strategic business reports contain a combination of both primary and secondary research statistics, analyses written by our senior analysts supported by a network of experts, industry contacts and researchers from around the world as well as our own scenario forecasts.
For more details, please see:
More than 4,000 customers from 140 countries utilise BuddeComm Research
Are you interested in BuddeComm's Custom Research Service?
Have the latest telecommunications industry news delivered to your inbox by subscribing to BuddeComm's weekly newsletter.