Vietnam now has 2.65 million MVNO subscribers

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has so far (as of June, 2023) licensed four MVNOs in Vietnam:

The majority of the 2.65 million subscribers are with the MVNO Itel, which was the first MVNO to launch in Vietnam in 2019, while the MVNO Wintel (formerly Reddi) announced 122,500 subscriptions in 1Q23.

The rest is with the MVNO myLocal (ASIM Telecom), as the MVNO VNSKY was just launched (May 23, 2023).

In April 2019, Indochina Telecom Joint Stock Company, operating the brand name Itel, became the first MVNO to launch in Vietnam, Itel launched its service using the network of Vinaphone – a subsidiary state-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT).

Itel initial service packages was designed to fit the segments of low income earners, students and factory workers.

After the launch of Itel, Nguyen Phong Nha, Deputy General Director of the MIC’s Authority of Telecommunications said. “The MVNO model will help save investment costs for businesses and avoid waste of resources as unused traffic and infrastructure of MNOs can be utilized by MVNOs that do not have their own infrastructure.”

On the 3rd of June 2020, Reddi, operated by Mobicast JSC, followed and launched its MVNO operation in Vietnam, also using the infrastructure of VNPT.

Masan Group Corporation, one of the three largest private sector companies in Vietnam (in terms of market capitalization), acquired 70% of Mobicast JSC in September, 2021, for a total cash payment of VND295.5 billion ($13 million).

Masan Group’s entry into the telecommunication sector was to lay the foundation to digitalize Masan’s platforms and build a unified offline-to-online (O2O) products and services solution ecosystem, by unifying its consumer base with the MVNO.

With Masan Group’s acquisition, the MVNO was rebranded from Reddi to Wintel.

Wintel is implementing a “All-in-one” digital experience strategy, targeting tens of millions of customers, from its other member brands such as: Phuc Long, Techcombank, WinMart, etc., in the Masan Group ecosystem.

In the first quarter of 2023, Wintel said it achieved 122,569 subscribers, and revenue of VND 16.48 billion, up 457% over the same period in 2022.

In May 2023, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh took over as CEO of Wintel. Ms. Anh’s has nearly 20 years of experience in operations management, strategic planning, marketing, revenue/profit optimization and new market development for companies such as Lazada, Vietnamobile, Prudential, VNLife. Holding and Tuan Chau Group.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh main task is to develop and execute innovative strategies with the goal of making Mobicast a breakthrough media and entertainment platform.

In May 2021, the MVNO Local, developed by ASIM Telecom became the third MVNO in the market. Local provides 4G data SIM products from MobiFone.

Local’s 4G SIMs are covering all 63 provinces and cities with a maximum specified speed of 150/50 Mbps (download/upload).

Digilife/VNPAY was awarded the license number 63/GP-CVT from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) – to provide telecommunications services without its own network – from (license date): March 31, 2022. The license is valid until March 31, 2032.

VNPAY says it is introducing the MVNO VNSKY as a product that combines telecommunications and fintech with the mission to make “Digital life easy”.

Speaking at the launch event, Mr. Nguyen Van Dung – Director of VNSKY said: “We believe that VNSKY will become a universal passport for everyone to easily access digital utilities and telecommunications services. quality, thereby opening the infinite digital universe. Every call, every message, and every connection with VNSKY is a step closer to our goal of connecting 5,000,000 users by 2025 and becoming one of the 5 largest mobile operators in Vietnam.”

Founded in 2007, VNPAY is the forerunner of VNLIFE’s subsidiaries. is a financial technology (Fintech) and service company, providing electronic payment solutions in Vietnam. The company offers mobile banking, phone recharge, and bill payment solutions and services for more several Vietnamese banks, telecommunications companies, and e-commerce businesses.

VNPAY’s apps sees 15 million+ monthly active consumers transfer money, pay bills, top up mobile credits, book bus tickets, or shop for groceries, according to VNLife. The company also runs VNPay-QR, an interoperable cashless payment network that serves 22 million users and over 150,000 merchants.

In 2019, VNLife reportedly received $300 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund and Singapore state fund GIC, but did not disclose the information at the time. In July 2021, it raised more than US$250 million in a series B funding round co-led by US investors General Atlantic and Dragoneer Investment Group.

With these investments, VNLife secured its position as Vietnam’s second billion-dollar unicorn.

The next MVNO to launch in Vietnam could very well be FPT Retail-FRT. In its 2022 general meeting of shareholders, FPT Digital Joint Stock Company (FPT Retail-FRT) was said to be planning a MVNO business in Vietnam.

The participation of MVNOs in the Vietnamese market is expected to contribute to new types of services within finance, education, health, hospitality, entertainment, etc, fuelling Vietnam’s digital transformation, which is already outpacing other markets in the region.

FPT Retail-FRT has existing assets to leverage its MVNO on. Besides its brand value and existing customer base.

Firstly, as a distribution channel, FRT owns a nationwide retail network with over 800 FPT Shop stores and more than 1,000 FPT Long Chau pharmaceutical stores.

Secondly, is has technical and technological advantages, as FPT Retail can leverage on the strength of FPT Corporation, as one of the leading enterprise in Vietnam in the field of information technology.

Thirdly, FRT has the advantage of exploiting FPT’s diverse service ecosystem to develop bundle services such as fixed telecommunications services (FPT Telecom), content systems (telecom media). FPT Play (OTT model), VNExpress (electronic newspaper), e-commerce system (Sendo, fptshop.com.vn), and education (FPT Education).

A source of the “Investment Newspaper”, said that FRT has already reached an agreement with MobiFone to cooperate in providing network infrastructure.

It is expected that at least a handful of new MVNOs will launch in Vietnam in 2023/2024.

UPDATE (13 October, 2023) FPT Retail says it expect to officially launch its MVNO in early 2024.

Mr. Viet Anh Nguyen, General Director at FPT Retail told Đời Sống Pháp Luật: “FPT Retail intends to launch it MVNO services to provide more services to customers and promote the ecosystem advantages of the entire FPT Group with many related fields – from retail to internet, television, e-commerce, communication services, education and training. We expect to provide official services to the market in early 2024”.

UPDATE: (January 2024) FPT Retail has officially launched its MVNO service in Vietnam

With the launch of the FPT Retail MVNO, Vietnam now has 5 active MVNOs. The participation of MVNOs in the Vietnamese market is expected to contribute to new types of services within finance, education, health, hospitality, entertainment, etc., fueling Vietnam’s digital transformation, which is already outpacing other markets in the region.

The activation of new SIMs have been tightened recently due to a huge increase in scam calls and SMS. The three major traditional mobile operators are connected directly to the National Population Database and when registering new subscribers the 3 networks are able to check online if the user data matches the National Population Database and the new subscribers will be accepted.

However, the MVNOs, have not yet been connected to the National Population Database, and therefore the MVNOs have to send the new user data to the Ministry of Information and Communications. After a comparison process, if the details are consistent with the National Population Database, the new subscribers will be accepted, if not they will be deleted from the system.

UPDATE (October 12, 2023) MVNOs in Vietnam told to stop agent and online SIM sales

The four mobile virtual network operators have all suspended the registration of new subscribers (SIM activation), through sale agent networks and on their websites and apps, following the direction of the Ministry of Information and Communications – to limit the widespread of illegal unregistered SIMs.

Thus, as of October 11, 2023, new subscribers must go to the service providers or “reputable distribution chains” to register their subscriber information which will severely increase the operating costs of the MVNOs, leading to the possibility of shutting down.

The Ministry of Information & Communications released a list of “reputable distribution chains” earlier, including channels such as; VNPost, Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World) and FPT Shop. However, one of the MVNOs said that, as soon as the list was released, the distribution chains raised their commissions, with some of the chains tripling the price.

There has not been any information on the length of the “temporary suspension”, on online activation for the MVNOs, but needles to say a solution must be found quickly. The country is a leader in growing the digital economy and transformation in the region, but it does not look good when users can’t use simple services such as online sales and service delivery.

All four MVNOs have sent an urgent petition to the Ministry of Information and Communications making a number of recommendations and have asked to be allowed to test and deploy an online solution in compliance with subscriber information management.

The MVNOs have also contacted the Ministry of Public Security to request permission to build connections with the National Population Database to compare/authenticate subscriber information.

At the Ministry of Information and Communications’ (MIC) press conference on August 8 to review the performance over the first seven months of 2023 – it was revealed that the sector’s total revenue was estimated at $11.8 billion in July, down 8% compared to June, but up 2% year-on-year (YoY).

The sectors’ state budget contribution was estimated at $362.2 million, falling by 3% month-on-month and 16% compared to the same period last year.

The total revenue of the IT industry in the first seven months was estimated at $72.9 billion, down 7.1% YoY. The drop was blamed on a sharp decline in hardware and electronics export revenue, which often accounts for a large proportion of the revenue structure of the IT industry.

Mr. Nguyen Phong Nha, Deputy Director-General of Vietnam Telecommunications Authority (VNTA), said that the revenue from the mobile network operators’ traditional services has seen a decline, but there are new driving forces for the growth of the industry.

“We now have high-speed 4G networks, which create opportunities for businesses and mobile network operators to develop new services. There is also a more favorable legal framework, and in the future, 5G will offer huge potential,” he said.

Notable, Vietnam rose to eighth in the rankings of countries with the highest number of mobile app downloads in the world.

Six of the apps that maintain over 10 million active accounts in Vietnam include:

• Zalo,
• Zing MP3,
• VNEID,
• Momo Wallet,
• MB Bank,
• My Viettel.

In terms of the digital economy, its ratio to GDP in the second quarter of 2023 was estimated at 15.26%

On July 12, at the preliminary meeting of the National Committee on Digital Transformation, the MIC – the standing body of the committee – announced the results of an assessment of the rate of digital transformation at ministerial, provincial, and national levels in 2022.

Compared to 2021, the growth of the national digital transformation index did slow down, but the component indices of digital government, digital economy, and digital society still maintained a high growth rate of 45-55%.