Nation sees internet growth rate of 300%

02/06/2006

In recent years, Internet Vietnam has made a break-through development with more than 12.5mil Internet subscribers, according to the Global Internet Policy Initiative Vietnam (GIPI Vietnam).

Counting to the end of April, Vietnam has 227,000 ADSL subscribers with growth rate of ADSL subscription of 300% per year, and nine Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

The figure represents a huge leap of ADSL in Vietnam when compared to 183 users in 2003 - the first year when ADSL stepped into Vietnamese market.

The increasing number - of Internet subscriber is attributed to the plunge in Internet subscription fee offered by service providers, GIPI Vietnam said.

Over past three years, dial-up accession fee has decreased by five times from VND200 (1.25 US cents) per minute to VND40 (0.25 US cents) per minute. In addition, fee for ADSL accession has reduced to the regional countries' average level of $15-30 per month.

Besides, the Government's suitable policies for supporting Internet development, competitive prices, improved transmission line's quality and appearance of value-added services on Internet are also important factors contributing to the ADSL development.

Currently, broad band service has been present at all provinces and cities nationwide. VNPT, FPT and Viettel is three ISPs which cover the largest market share of 86.7% in the country's Internet pie, as statistics released by the Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC).

GIPI Vietnam forecasted that in the following years, the number of ADSL would continue strongly rising.

GIPI Vietnam is a joint project implemented by three partners, namely Internews Europe, Centre for Socio-legal Studies at Oxford University (United Kingdom) and the Institute of Information and Technology of Vietnam (IOIT).

(Source: Viet Nam News)