There are seven Internet Service Providers ISP now in the market, including VDC, Viettel, FPT Telecom, NetNam, SPT, EVN Telecom and CMC TI. Of these, FPT Telecom was considered the pioneer when it launched the service into the market in 2006. Experts believe that the stiff competition would be a driving force which helps develop the market and make FTTx services replaceable for Internet ADSL in the near future.

With many advantages, FTTx has caught the special attention of clients-businesses. However, it has a big disadvantage that the charges are at overly high levels.

Pham Thanh Duc, Deputy General Director of FPT Telecom, said that there are many service providers in the market. However, the market is being dominated by the three big ISPs FPT Telecom, VNPT (the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group) and Viettel.

According to Duc, the FTTx service fees remain high which only fit enterprises, while most of the clients of FPT Telecom are in big cities like Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang and HCM City. Service providers have to charge high service fees because they have to spend big money on infrastructure and terminal equipment. Besides this, big barriers have been installed by the relying on the equipment foreign supplies and the limited awareness of clients about Internet applications.

Duc thinks that FTTx service fees would only begin going down after 3-5 years.

The British market survey firm BMI has released a telecom market survey for the second quarter of 2011, saying that FTTx service charges remain high, but they will be decreasing gradually in the next five years. ISPs have been competing with each other by offering diversified service packages, which have made service fees adjusted regularly. Besides, the profits from FTTx services are big enough to allow ISP to ease the charges

According to BMI, together with the competition among service providers, the demand of consumers for added value services based on broadband technology like IPTV, Video Conferencing and Video on Demand would serve as the driving force helping Vietnam increase the broadband connections. The market survey firm believes that the demand for broadband connections from personal computers would increase by 20-30 percent by 2015, which will make FTTx become more popular.

In 2006, when FTTx was launched into the market, FPT Telecom offered four service packages for FTTH (Fiber to the Home) with the capacity of 4Mb, 8Mb, 16Mb and 20Mb per second which have the monthly subscription fees of 3 million dong, 6 million, 12 and 15 million dong and the initial installation fee of 8 million dong.

Currently, the company is offering six packages with the capacity of 25 Mb, 30Mb, 35 Mb, 45 Mb and 65 Mb per second and the monthly subscription fees of 1.2, 2.5, 3, 6. 15 and 3 million dong. The figures show that while the installation fee does not change, the service fees have decreased, while the capacity for users has increased.

In general, the lowest fee consumers have to pay for FTTH has decreased by a half, from 3 million dong to 1.5 million dong.

Especially, VDC has announced that it has increased the capacity since May 1, while it keeps the service fee unchanged. With the latest decision, consumers will have to pay 700-900,000 dong for the smallest service package of FiberVNN service.

Not only competing in prices, ISPs have to spend more and more money in order to build and upgrade the infrastructure. Since April 2010, FPT Telecom has increased the bandwith of the fiber Internet service packages to 30 Mb per second at the lowest, and 65 Mb per second at the highest. The company not only builds infrastructure in big cities, it has been trying to provide services in 38 cities and provinces throughout the country.

VDC said that 2010 was a successful year for VDC, though it only began providing fiber Internet services in May 2010. By the end of July 2010, VDC had had 11.7 million ADSL and FTTx subscribers.

Bui Quoc Viet, the spokesman of VNPT, the owner of VDC, said it will make heavy investment in the fiber infrastructure in the next years. Meanwhile, Viettel said it is now ready to provide services to 115,000 clients.
Source: Vneconomynews