VTC's license to establish telecommunications network was revoked.

The Ministry of Information and Communications has just issued a Decision to revoke the license to establish a network and provide telecommunications services of the Multimedia Communications Corporation (VTC).

Photo is for illustration purposes only. (Source: VMS)

Accordingly, license No. 856/GP-BTTTT of VTC was granted on June 14, 2010, valid until June 14, 2025, allowing this unit to establish a terrestrial mobile telecommunications network according to the IMT-2000 standard without a radio access system (also known as a virtual telecommunications network) and provide terrestrial mobile information services, value-added services and the Internet.

After a period of seeing VTC “silent” in the implementation, in July 2012, the Department of Telecommunications requested VTC to report. In December 2012, in Official Dispatch No. 1379/VTC-VTS, VTC said that this unit had worked with units with mobile telecommunications infrastructure such as Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone, Vietnammobile, EVNT, partners such as Ericson, Nokia Siemens, Huawei, ZTE…

As of December 2012, VTC was negotiating with Viettel and said that if they could not reach a cooperation agreement, they would return license 856/GP-BTTTT.

Regarding the reason for the delay in implementing the license according to regulations, VTC said that in June 2011, the Prime Minister decided to merge EVNTelecom into Viettel, causing the implementation of the contents of the strategic cooperation agreement and the contract to purchase 30% of shares signed between VTC and EVN to be delayed. VTC Corporation discussed with Viettel about continuing to maintain the virtual telecommunications network contract that VTC signed with EVNT. However, due to many changes in the technical and business model of the old EVNT network, the implementation of negotiations was very difficult.

In addition, 2012 was the year of restructuring of VTC Corporation and because the business orientation and internal arrangement of VTC units had not been approved, the implementation of the virtual telecommunications network license encountered many difficulties.

In May 2013, VTC again proposed to the Ministry of Information and Communications to allow it to continue maintaining its virtual telecommunications network license to serve negotiations with mobile network operators, and to consider allowing VTC to test a frequency-free mobile network model via wifi and 3G networks based on IP technology...

By the end of July, VTC continued to send an official dispatch with an attached cooperation agreement with Global Telecommunications Corporation (GTEL). However, the Telecommunications Department determined that this agreement was not feasible because GTEL did not have a license to establish a network and provide IMT-2000 terrestrial mobile telecommunications services. In addition, GTEL's network was not enough to meet the needs of this unit and was having to use VinaPhone's network infrastructure to provide domestic roaming services.

According to the Telecommunications Department, VTC has not invested or invested little in virtual mobile network infrastructure. This is also a new field in a market that has reached a level of fierce competition like the mobile information market, so it should stop to avoid dispersing resources and ensure the effectiveness of the State's investment.

Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Law stipulates that an enterprise will have its license revoked in case it “fails to actually implement the contents specified in the granted telecommunications license after two years from the date of licensing.”

For the above reasons, the Department of Telecommunications has proposed the Ministry of Information and Communications to revoke the license 856/GP-BTTTT granted to VTC. And, on August 20, 2013, the revocation decision was signed.

Before VTC, Indochina Telecommunication Joint Stock Company was also licensed by the Ministry of Information and Communications to establish a virtual mobile information network in 2009. However, this unit was also unable to negotiate with Viettel on the shared use of radio access infrastructure to provide services. Therefore, this license was also revoked./.

According to Vietnam+ - M.Đ