Vietnamobile, the newest GSM mobile phone network in the country, is re-directing those customers who continued to use its CDMA service from May 2008 to its GSM network.
The operator, a partnership between Hutchison Telecommunications International and local operator Hanoi Telecom, calls it “a welcome back program for thanking the loyal customers.”
Vietnamobile started its GSM network with footprint present in all 64 provinces in the country on April 9. Its phone numbers start with 092. The first phase of the ‘welcome back’ program is first offered to customers in big cities, and will roll out to the rest of the country later.
Hutchison previously operated under the name HT Mobile in Vietnam, using CDMA technology. Services were suspended in the middle of 2008 to prepare for the switch to GSM, which is expected to help improve business performance.
Deputy CEO Nguyen Xuan Quan said, “The most two popular cases we’ve seen are customers own a 092 sim card and don’t own a handset; and customers own a 092 sim card together a CDMA handset.”
“Based on this fact, we’ve worked out various ways for our customers to easily choose for the switch to GSM,” he added.
Vietnamobile charges its customers based on per second billing starting the moment a call is connected.
