Telecommunications and transportation businesses have "cleared"

Traffic inspectors check journey monitoring devices on passenger cars at My Dinh Bus Station (Hanoi)

On October 30, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) chaired a working session with telecommunications enterprises, the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association and enterprises providing journey monitoring devices (black boxes) regarding the issue of network operators increasing 3G fees, causing a series of "black boxes" to become paralyzed.

Initially, the units have agreed on a plan to remove obstacles for transport enterprises. As soon as possible, the network operator will design and provide a new 3G package, suitable for the characteristics of the "black box" product to reduce costs and ensure the harmony of interests between enterprises.

"Dizzying" increase in fares

Khuat Viet Hung, Director of the Department of Transport (Ministry of Transport), said: Since 2008, according to regulations, passenger cars, container trucks, etc. have been required to install "black boxes" to manage and monitor vehicles that violate traffic laws. To date, more than 50,000 vehicles in this category have completed installation and data has been integrated and managed by the Vietnam Road Administration.

The Prime Minister also issued Directive 12/CT-TTg dated June 23, 2013 to strengthen the implementation of solutions.Urgently prevent serious traffic accidents in transportation activities; in which, direct the integration of data from "black boxes" to manage, warn and handle violations of speed, itinerary, driving time for drivers and transportation businesses. If the "black box" is found to be inactive, the driver's license will be suspended for 30 days and fined 2.5 million VND. The increase in 3G fees in recent times has caused great disruption for transportation businesses. In the context of a difficult economy, transportation businesses with limited resources must bear the cost of increasing 3G fees (a business with 100 vehicles will have to increase costs by 8 to 10 million VND/month). Since the beginning of the year, the input costs of the transportation industry have increased by 72%, so just one more small impact will be the "last straw", enough to cause trouble for the transportation business industry.

According to Vice President of Vietnam Automobile Transport Association Than Van Thanh, to transmit data, each "black box" must use a mobile subscriber sim to transmit data to the server. The different characteristics of "black boxes" are that they transmit information at low speed, each message has a very small capacity (about 64 - 256 bytes), but requires continuous transmission, so the "block" of 50KB + 50KB is not suitable. Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobifone network operators simultaneously adjusted the fare and "block" of charging (50KB + 50KB instead of 10KB + 10KB, using 0.1KB is also rounded to 50KB to calculate the fee) causing the data transmission traffic to increase hundreds of times.

According to statistics, from October 21 to now, within 10 days, some enterprises have had to pay nearly 100 million VND for "black boxes". Just a few days after adjusting 3G rates, tens of thousands of "black boxes" were "paralyzed" due to running out of money in their accounts. Thousands of transport enterprises are at risk of losing control of their vehicles and having their transport business licenses revoked because the devices do not transmit data as prescribed. Explaining why transport enterprises have not commented on the fare increase, but only "black box" suppliers have spoken up, Mr. Thanh said that most transport enterprises have signed a package contract with "black box" suppliers, in other words, "black box" suppliers are paying in advance to transport enterprises.

New 3G package design

On October 29, the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, the "black box" Business Association worked with Viettel representatives (accounting for more than 70% of the SIM cards used in "black boxes") to discuss measures to remove obstacles, in order to stabilize transportation activities. Initially, Viettel representatives recorded the proposed opinions of the units, and will report to the leaders and competent authorities on policies and directions for handling. Previously, Viettel affirmed that since 2011, it has provided the V-Tracking package with a cost of only 15,000 VND/month and this package does not adjust the price or "block", but some businesses "wrongly chose" the package, using regular SIM cards for the purpose of monitoring vehicles.

However, businesses reported that the V-Tracking package can only be used with equipment and software systems provided by Viettel, so it is not suitable for equipment suppliers. Businesses operating in this type of business must also think about how to have a suitable package for customers to improve their competitiveness, so it is impossible to "choose the wrong" package. On the other hand, on the afternoon of October 29, when Viettel's technical department and the "black box" company worked together, they proved and confirmed that the price of the V-Tracking packages provided by Viettel is still higher than the price of regular packages.

The Vietnam Automobile Transport Association said that the "black box" companies have had to bear huge costs in the past few days, and even if they try their best, they can only "survive" until November 10. They asked the network operators to quickly come up with a plan and design a new suitable package to help businesses. However, Viettel's representative said that the unit must consider and submit it to the company's leaders and the governing ministry (Ministry of Information and Communications), and at the earliest it will be implemented by November 16.

Viettel representatives plan to launch a new package that is suitable for the characteristics of the "black box" device, and request the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association to soon issue a proposal to have a basis for implementing this package (price 10,000 VND/month, "block" access 10 KB + 10 KB, when switching to the new package, no need to change SIM). Vinaphone and MobiFone also offer quite flexible and attractive packages for transport companies.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director of CH Joint Stock Company (Hanoi), the unit providing "black boxes" for nearly 2,500 vehicles, reflected: The company uses Vinaphone's EZ 0 package (pay as you go) for the "black boxes". Previously, each SIM card cost an average of 10 to 15 thousand VND/month, the recent "block" adjustment has caused each SIM card to skyrocket to 300 - 400 thousand VND/month.

Vinaphone Company Deputy Director Hoang Trung Hai affirmed that when adjusting the price, Vinaphone tried not to cause major disruption to businesses. On the afternoon of October 30, the Director of CH Joint Stock Company said that Vinaphone had worked with the company and initially agreed to re-provide the EZ 10 package which is very suitable for the company's capacity (price 10 thousand VND/month, allowed usage capacity 50 Mb, charging block 10 KB + 10 KB). MobiFone Deputy General Director Nguyen Dinh Chien suggested that transport businesses and "black box" suppliers sign official contracts with the company, the company commits to let customers try and choose the appropriate package. At the same time, there should be a separate customer care department for this type and provide sim tracking devices for businesses to create the most convenience for customers.

According to the Director of the Department of Transport Khuat Viet Hung, in the coming time, the Government will amend Decree 91/2009/ND-CP on conditions for automobile transport business, expanding the scope of enterprises that must install "black boxes" for taxis and trucks carrying regular goods. Thus, the number of customers for network operators will increase significantly, but at the same time, each move of the network operators will also cause impacts on enterprises and society. Therefore, during the operation, enterprises and network operators should coordinate, contact directly and negotiate before there is a change in policy, to avoid disruption and "shock" to transport enterprises as recently.

Deputy Director of the Telecommunications Department (Ministry of Information and Communications) Nguyen Duc Trung also pledged to facilitate and quickly resolve procedures for telecommunications enterprises in launching new packages. At the same time, requiring telecommunications enterprises to clearly separate services and goods for new packages. Sims must be attached to all "black box" devices so that all providers can use them, not providing packages that are only used for their own devices and software systems.

According to People