VNPT ceased providing Vietnam Card Phone services from March 25, 2013.

On February 5th, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) announced that, starting March 25th, 2013, VNPT will officially cease providing the Vietnam Cardphone service nationwide.

Launched in 1997, the CardPhone service utilizes electronic card technology with dedicated CardPhone stations located in public places, installed in all provinces and cities nationwide. Between 1997 and 2002, CardPhone was considered a convenient service for users in many public areas such as central streets, train stations, bus terminals, hospitals, and schools. A total of 12,071 CardPhone machines were installed across the VNPT network.



From March 25, 2013, VNPT will officially cease providing Vietnam Card Phone services. (Image: ndhmoney.vn).

However, with the rapid development of telecommunication services, especially mobile phone services, in recent years, card phones have become less popular among customers than before. From 2002 to the present, revenue from card phone services has steadily declined.

Given that the service no longer meets the needs of society, VNPT has decided to discontinue providing this service nationwide.

As of the end of December 2012, VNPT had dismantled 9,949 base stations. The number of inactive base stations awaiting dismantling and recovery was 1,096, while the number of operational base stations was 1,029.

As a type of service within Vietnam's information infrastructure system, after more than 15 years of development, the Cardphone service has now fulfilled its role.

To ensure the interests of service users and stakeholders, VNPT will notify agents and customers with remaining CardPhone cards to go to the nearest VNPT transaction point in the province/city to receive reimbursement for the remaining value of the cards that the customer/agent purchased but not yet used. The reimbursement of the remaining amount on the CardPhone card will be made in cash or Vinaphone mobile scratch cards, as requested by the customer.

(According to the Communist Party of Vietnam) QN