VietNamNet Bridge – At first, 3G services in Vietnam were thought to be designed only for those with high income. However, since service providers have been continuously lowering their fee, 3G has become affordable for the majority of people.



3G services have been provided in Vietnam for one year. At first, Vietnamese people thought that these were “luxurious” services they could never afford. However, they have changed their minds.



Trung, an ADSL broadband user, said that he has been using this service since 2006. But now he switched to 3G service.



Explaining his decision, Trung said that the quality of 3G Internet is in no way inferior to ADSL, while he can use the Internet everywhere, and the charges are “reasonable”. Now, he accesses Internet every day with Fast Connect provided by MobiFone, one of the three biggest mobile service providers in Vietnam.



Trung is not alone. More and more Vietnamese people with medium incomes chose 3G broadband services to surf on Internet. An ADSL service package, is no less than 100,000 dong a month. Meanwhile, , it is easy for clients to find a mobile broadband plan that is suitable to their needs for which they only have to pay 50,000 dong 

Trung said he could not believe that the charges for 3G services could be so low until he saw that service providers kept on reducing them. MobiFone, for example, has been lowering the charges several times over the last year, since it began providing 3G services.



Most recently, the service fee for Mobile Internet has reduced by 80 percent to 10 dong/10kb from 50 dong. Meanwhile, the service fee for Fast Connect has reduced sharply by 94 percent to 65 dong/Mb from 1024 dong.



Currently, there is gap between the fees charged by big service providers such as VinaPhone, Viettel and MobiFone. However, analysts say it is not big, while clients have a choice of based on the service? popularity, telephone? brands, and quality of customer service.



According to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication and mobile service providers, mobile Internet is the main selling point of 3G services .



Seeing the growing demand, service providers compete with each other in offering various discounts and promotions to make their products more affordable to Vietnamese customers. As the result,, 3G services are not considered as “luxurious” any more, as service providers aim to “bring 3G to everyone”.



A year ago, when MobiFone officially launched 3G services into the market, Le Ngoc Minh, Director of VMS MobiFone said he believed that with the high demand, his compnay would be able to regain its investment capital quickly. He estimated that some 10-15 percent of 35 million registered MobiFone subscribers switch from 2G to 3G services.



Source: Dau tu

VietNamNet Bridge – A solar energy network, funded by Germany at a cost of EUR1 million, was inaugurated in Hanoi on November 19, making it the first of its kind so far in Vietnam.

The network, installed on the roof of the Ministry of Industry and Trade office, is capable of generating 18,000 kWh annually, helping the ministry to save an estimated VND 12 million (roughly $612) in power bills for the office.

The Governor of the German Baden-Wurrtemberg State, Stefan Mappus, said at the inauguration ceremony that the project was part of an overseas solar energy network development programme launched by the German Energy Company DENA in 2004.

The move has received financial assistance from the German Ministry of Economy and Technology as an initiative to develop the use of renewable energy on a world scale.

So far over 30 such projects have been deployed in many countries, said the German representative.

He advised Vietnam to focus investment in solar and wind energy in order to tap its advantages of geographical position and extensive coastline.

“Technologically and financially strong German enterprises such as Altus AG are willing to enter into co-operation with Vietnam in developing green energy in the interest of environment,” he said.

For his part, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang said the project would help increase public awareness on energy savings and environmental protection.

He, however, acknowledged that the renewable energy development demands huge initial investment and high production costs, causing hurdles to the national effort in this regard.

Deputy Minister Quang, therefore, called on other domestic and foreign businesses to join hand with the Government in expanding the model to other Governmental offices to save energy and protect the environment.

The Government has encouraged public-private partnerships to invest in electricity industry, contributing to developing renewable energy, said the senior Government official.

Source: Nhan Dan

VietNamNet Bridge – It was not by chance that Steve Ballmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, when visiting Vietnam last May, decided to cooperate with Vietnamese Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technologies (FPT) to develop cloud computing services in Vietnam.



Microsoft hopes that the cooperation would be the first step in its effort to bring cloud computing to Vietnam. Once Microsoft keeps a keen eye on Vietnam, this means that the nation becomes a potential market for service providers, while small and medium enterprises would be the first target of the service providers. 



After Microsoft, IBM and Intel have also announced recently that they will develop cloud computing in Vietnam. 



IBM Vietnam on October 27, joining forces with ICT Partnership Club, organized a workshop on cloud computing development in Vietnam. Tran Viet Huan, a senior executive of IBM Vietnam, said that in America and Europe, the markets have been heating up with cloud computing, while leading technology groups such as Microsoft, IBM, Google and Intel are trying to expand their influences in developing cloud-based IT services. Therefore, Huan said, Vietnamese enterprises should think of developing their business based on the new technology which is followed by the whole world.



According to Huan, the biggest advantage of cloud computing is that it helps enterprises, especially small and medium ones, save money. With cloud computing, services, software products and applications will be put on Internet or enterprises to use, while enterprises will only have to pay service fees for that. This means that they will not have to pay money to purchase whole software products or applications. They also will not have to spend money to hire information technology officers for monthly equipment maintenance.



Huan cited a survey conducted by IBM on 1000 chief information officer (CIO) in June 2009. The question was: “Why are you interested in cloud computing?” The CIOs gave three main reasons. First, cloud computing can help reduce expenses on IT. Second, it allows enterprises to shorten the time of launching services into the market. And third, cloud computing helps enterprises automate the services they provide, thus helping in minimizing errors.



Not ready yet



Lam Nguyen Hai Long, Managing Director of QTSC Online under Quang Trung Software Park Development Company, also said that Vietnamese enterprises should think of leasing IT services, as this way enterprises will not have to all four things. They will not have to spend money on server system, pay royalties, configure or set up servers, and pay for the equipment maintenance.



However, Long Vietnam is still insufficiently prepared for cloud computing. In October, QTSC Online conducted a survey on the readiness of Vietnamese enterprises for IT service leasing. 26 percent of enterprises said they would accept to pay 5000 dong for every leased mail account, 40 percent will accept to pay from 5000-10,000 dong, 21 percent pay over 10,000 dong, while the remaining enterprises have not made decisions. 



The figures show that Vietnamese enterprises have begun thinking of leasing services, but are still not ready to do so. “However, I think that the service leasing in Vietnam will eventually start to develop faster,” he said.



Enterprises are still not ready for IT services leasing, because they fear being too dependent on service providers. Therefore, they may have to face high risks in information security. Will the information be leaking? Will cloud computing service providers react quickly enough in emergency cases? A lot of such questions have been raised.



Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon

VietNamNet Bridge – In a fierce competition between each other domestic telecom companies, have been trying to lower the charges for international calls to Vietnam. As the result, they now have to work for free for foreign companies.



Feeding up foreign telecom companies



Vietnamese telecom companies understand well that if they keep fighting each other, they would eventually destroy themselves. However, the race to lower charges (foreign partners pay Vietnamese companies for the international calls to Vietnam) has become fiercer over the last seven years. Telecom companies discussed the way to cooperate instead of fighting each other many times. However, no solution has been found. Though companies committed not to offer too low charges, they broke the promises right after.



After several years of fighting each other to expand their market share, the charges for international calls to Vietnam have been lowered from 35 cents per minute to less than four cents per minute. As the result, the service market, which was considered a “fertile soil”, has been exhausted.



Several days ago, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) organized a meeting with eight service providers, including the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT), Viettel, SPT, Hanoi Telecom, CMC, Vishipel, EVN Telecom and VTC, to discuss how to stop the race to the bottom.



Nguyen Huu Khanh, Director of VTI, said that domestic telecom companies continue to lower the international call charges, warning that if no solution is found, domestic telecom companies will not be able to make profit any more.



“Telecom companies themselves cannot settle the problem, because they would break promises. MIC needs to intervene by setting a floor price, and enterprises must not sell products below that level,” Khanh said.



The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) once also advised countries to calculate the international call charges based on the production costs.



To Cuong, Deputy General Director of VNPT, said that once MIC reduces the domestic connection fee, the international call charges will be lowered the next day, because foreign partners try to force the charges down. Therefore, Cuong has called for an urgent measure to settle the problem.





Agreeing with this viewpoint, Le Quang Trieu, Deputy General Director of SPT, said that the service fee is coming closer to the production costs and the company is nearly making loss on the service. Trieu also thinks that telecom companies should sit together to discuss the measures to keep the charges at reasonable levels.



“SPT hopes that MIC will set up floor prices in order to raise the VoIP call charges, and will set up the national VoIP portal to control the service,” Trieu said.



Nguyen Hoang Phong, Director of Digicom, a unit of VTC, said that though the service offers a big potential, it will not? bring profit. Meanwhile, Vo Quang Lam, Deputy Director of EVN Telecom, stressed that Vietnam needs to protect the market like the US protects the basa fish market, or Japan protects the international VoIP market.



Representative from CMC said that currently, Vietnamese companies are working for foreign companies for free. “Though domestic companies commit not to offer too low charges, but after that, they give special offers (buy 100 minutes and get 100 minutes free, for example). This is a kind of dumping,” he said.



What to do?



MIC’s Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang said that this is a a market with a big potential with 3.3 billion minutes of call every year and the possible turnover of $140 million. 



He has warned that with the openness of the Telecommunication Law, more enterprises will join the market. Enterprises will have the right to set up their sale prices, but they must not sell products at the prices below the production costs.



“If enterprises are found as violating the rules, they may have their licenses revoked,” he stated.



Buu Dien

VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City Department of Education and Training is planning to pilot the installation of camera systems allowing parents to keep watch over their children at the city’s kindergarten classrooms in the last two months of this year.

Children have lunch at Twenty-seven Kindergarten in Binh Thanh District. The city’s education department 

plans to install cameras at kindergartens which will allow parents to be informed about their children’s development. (Photo: VNS)

The department’s chief of the secretariat Le Thi Tai said it aimed at strengthening the management of preschool teachers and students.

The decision was taken at a recent meeting between the department and representatives from kindergartens from 24 districts in the city.

Tai said the department required the organising of courses to solve teacher training failings and improve private pre-school institutions in the city.

The department would research more effective ways to keep parents informed about the physical and mental development of their children during school-time.

The meeting was held days after four year-old boy Le Quang Vinh was found to have suffered injuries during school-time at HCM City’s Hoa Lan Private Nursery School, after Vinh’s teacher, Tran Thi Xuan Nu, locked the boy in a dumbwaiter.

Vinh, after panicking, injured himself in the confined space, and was discharged from hospital after a month of treatment, still showing the physical scars of his ordeal. The teacher faces criminal charges.

Tran Mai Hoa, mother of a four-year-old girl, said she only felt secure about her child if she was able to monitor her through a camera in the classroom.

"It may bother teachers and restrict their creativity during the lessons, but children’s safety is crucial after some of the recent children abuse cases," Hoa said.

Head of the department’s Pre-school Management Unit Nguyen Thi Kim Thanh disagreed, saying that the method would be costly but ineffective.

"It may take nearly VND100 million (US$5,100) to install camera systems at 10 classrooms. The larger the school is, the more it will have to spend," she said.

Thanh also said the introduction of cameras would only increase the pressure on teachers and do nothing in reality to strengthen their management during school-hours.

"It’s important for teachers to feel confident and comfortable, and inspire love in their pupils for them. That’s the most effective method, in my point of view," she said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News