New SIMs stopped delivering through authorized service providers

The Ministry of Information and Communications has directed that the three leading mobile network providers in Vietnam, namely Viettel, Mobifone, and VinaPhone, apply suitable methods to tackle the issue of illegal pre-activated SIMs in the market at the moment.

Accordingly, from this June, Viettel, Mobifone, and VinaPhone all stop selling their own connection KITs at their authorized service providers or allowing these providers to pre-connect new SIMs for selling later on. Instead, the three enterprises are delivering new SIMs and collecting buyers’ required information directly at their branch offices.

This solution is applied since problems arise when there are over 125 million mobile subscribers in Vietnam while its own population is only around 96 million. The rate of 1.3 mobile subscriber per citizen in the nation leads to the issue of pre-activated SIMs sold for marketing purposes.

As mobile subscription growth saturates in Vietnam, it is high time that mobile network providers focused more on improving service quality and developing new apps or service based on the mobile platform.

Answering the inquiry whether this new decision can affect users or not, the representative of the Authority of Telecommunications assured that all mobile network providers are going to try their best to facilitate new SIM purchasing and information collection processes. They are going to open more branch offices and introduce their own mobile telecoms service providers in various locations to serve potential customers.

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