Carriers will design separate packages for transportation.

Regarding the increase in 3G rates that has paralyzed the journey monitoring device (black box-GPS) causing difficulties for transport enterprises, representatives of telecommunications enterprises affirmed that they will soon have their own tariff packages suitable for the transport industry. Units can choose and try before signing an official usage contract.

Transport businesses are at risk of bankruptcy due to 3G packages used for black box devices. (Photo: Viet Hung/Vietnam+)

However, according to the procedure, the earliest the network operator can declare the price and deploy this special package is November 16, which means that transport units still have to "bend" their backs to pay the fare.

"Hunchback" to pay the fare

At a meeting to discuss the difficulties faced by transport businesses when 3G fees increase at the Ministry of Transport on October 30, Mr. Than Van Thanh, Vice President of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, said that the network operators’ increase in 3G fees has had a huge impact on transport businesses and black box equipment suppliers. Thousands of devices have even had to stop working because businesses do not have enough money to recharge.

To prove this, Mr. Thanh gave evidence that in more than 10 days of 3G fee increase (from October 16), some businesses had to pay additional fees of up to 170 million VND.

“Many companies, despite trying their best, can only survive until November 10 because they no longer have the financial resources to pay the fares. Therefore, a series of devices mounted on cars are at risk of stopping operation due to lack of money,” said Mr. Than.

Agreeing, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director of CH Hanoi Joint Stock Company (a supplier of black box equipment) said that this unit has about 2,500 black box equipment installed on cars of transport companies. In the past 10 days, the unit had to pay an additional 45 million VND in additional fees.

“According to statistics, as of October 30, only 1,086 devices were still in operation, the rest had to be temporarily suspended because businesses did not have enough money to top up,” said the director.

Many 3G devices are at risk of stopping working due to the increase in 3G prices. (Photo: Viet Hung/Vietnam+)

According to Mr. Khuat Viet Hung, Director of the Department of Transport (Ministry of Transport), implementing the provisions of the Road Traffic Law, since 2008, motor vehicles have been required to install black box devices. To date, about 50,000 vehicles have installed this device.

In addition, according to this Director, the Ministry of Transport is amending Decree 91 on conditions for transport business and will accordingly expand the subjects required to install the device to include taxis and regular freight transport businesses. Therefore, the subjects using black box devices will be very large, even a small change will have a large-scale impact.

“Since the beginning of the year, the input costs of the transport industry have increased by 72%. Therefore, just a small push is enough to knock this industry down,” Mr. Hung said.

There will be new packages

Figures from the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association show that 70% of SIM cards installed on black box devices currently use Viettel network services, the rest are MobiFone and VinaPhone.

Viettel representative said that this unit only increased the fee on some packages, with specialized packages for black box devices such as V-tracking since the beginning of 2011 until now not adjusted.

However, transport units do not use Viettel's correct transport packages, so they face difficulties when this network increases prices.

Mr. Ta Cong Thuan, Head of the Association of Black Box Equipment Suppliers, said that with Viettel's new block calculation method, the fee has increased many times.

For example, every time the car loses signal and reconnects, it automatically loses 50 Kb. The more the car moves, the more it uses. This is the reason why the money loaded into the Sim card is quickly used up.

Furthermore, according to Mr. Thuan, at the time of installing black box equipment for transportation businesses, packages such as Mi10 and Laptop Easy are the most suitable in terms of economic and usage volume.

“Viettel's V-tracking specialized package has not increased in price this time, but compared to packages like Mi10 and Laptop Easy, it is still more expensive,” Mr. Thuan acknowledged.

According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Chien, Deputy General Director of MobiFone, due to the nature of the transportation industry requiring the use of 3G with low traffic, low transmission speed, and continuous movement, the current 50kb block calculation is not suitable for black box devices.

“We want transportation businesses and black box equipment suppliers to sign official contracts with network operators. MobiFone has many packages suitable for the transportation industry. Businesses can choose and try them out before signing official contracts,” said Mr. Chien.

According to Viettel representative, the company will find solutions to best support transportation businesses by structuring separate packages and calculating support for businesses to develop together.

“Viettel proposed a new package of 10,000 VND/month with 50Mb, block calculated at 10kb, allowing the conversion of 3G SIMs currently in use to this package. However, the level of support must be discussed and considered by the company's leaders as well as the Ministry of Information and Communications. And at the earliest, it will not be implemented until November 16 because the fee declaration cycle is usually at the beginning or middle of the month,” revealed a Viettel representative.

“Concluding” the issue, Mr. Nguyen Duc Trung, Deputy Director of the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications) said that the Department requires checking whether all SIM cards currently used in black box devices are properly registered or not? If not, they will be forced to stop using them because of security issues.

Regarding the new specialized package, Mr. Trung said: “The Ministry of Information and Communications is committed to creating conditions and quickly resolving procedures for network operators. In addition, the SIM card must be attached to all black box devices so that all providers can use it.”/.

Faced with the change in the way network operators calculate data transmission rates, leading to a sudden increase in 3G service costs, causing thousands of black boxes of transport companies' cars to stop working due to not being able to recharge in time, the Ministry of Transport on October 25 sent a document requesting the Prime Minister's direction on this matter.

Specifically, the Ministry of Transport proposed that the Prime Minister request the Ministry of Public Security to direct patrol and control forces to temporarily not handle violations against vehicle owners and drivers in cases where the journey monitoring device does not operate properly due to the 3G subscription account suddenly running out of money; the application period is until November 30, 2013.

According to Vietnam+