Viettel ranks in top 10 mobile operators globally; FPT Service becomes iPad warranty agent; Mobifone upgrades home location register; FPT Telecom to partner in cable TV services; Broadband internet services need faster speeds

Ascott launches mobile websites, online chat 

Property developer CapitaLand's wholly-owned serviced residences arm Ascott Limited (Ascott) has launched mobile versions of its three brand websites – www.the-ascott.com, www.citadines.com and www.somerset.com – as well as an online chat facility on them.

HCM City hosts seminar on virtualisation 

VMware, a leading US company in virtualisation and cloud infrastructure, held a seminar in HCM City on Thursday on how companies can leverage virtualisation to gain a competitive advantage.

"We are seeing strong interest in our robust virtualisation platform in Viet Nam, which enables customers to remove the complexity of managing IT," said Dr Chawapol Jariyawiros, VMware's country manager for Thailand and Indochina.

By using Vmware products, including the vCenter Site Recovery Manager for business continuity and vSphere 5 for high performance, resource control, pooling and scheduling, Vinamilk had achieved the agility to scale up IT in line with its business growth, said the dairy giant's IT director, Nguyen Nghi.-

Viettel ranks in top 10 mobile operators globally 

Viettel has been ranked in the top 10 operators with the most new subscribers in the first quarter this year, according to a report by GSMA Wireless Intelligence.

Viettel surpassed companies such as Singapore's SingTel, Axiata of Malaysia and ranked only after network operators in India and China.

As a leading provider of telecommunications services in Viet Nam, Viettel has invested both domestically and internationally in countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Haiti, Peru and Mozambique with a revenue of nearly US$6 billion last year and 60 active subscribers.-
    
FPT Service becomes iPad warranty agent 

FPT Service, under FPT software, has officially become the authorised warranty agent of Apple for its new iPad in Viet Nam.The iPad is the latest product warranted by FPT after the Ipad1 and 2, the Macbook, Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.-

BIDV to launch e-banking services 

The Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV) will reveal its debut e-banking service this June with many outstanding features and the application of modern technology, to bring utilities to customers.

With this service, BIDV customers can manage accounts and conduct transactions anytime, anywhere through the internet and mobile phones without going directly to the bank.

The bank has worked with leading solutions providers of information technology and banking such as Polaris and C-Sam to build this advanced system with stability and high security.-

Mobifone upgrades home location register 

Mobifone has been upgrading the home location register (HLR) of customers to a new version since May 14.

The effort aims to deliver more utility services and support MobiFone in managing its data consolidation for better customer care. Customers should visit shop/text/website for fill-ins in case of handset loss and/or swap services and restart their phones in case they cannot make outgoing/incoming calls/texts. Customers are also advised to contact the Call Centre on 9244 for emergencies.-

FPT Telecom to partner in cable TV services 

An Vien Television (AVG) has planned to co-ordinate with FPT Telecom to provide cable television services thanks to their available north-south optical cable network scheduled for completion in June this year.

AVG aims to further invest in building coaxial cable networks to provide households with cheap cable television services. Before that, AVG announced it would provide satellite TV services at very cheap rates from VND33,000 per month. FPT is now the country's second largest internet provider after VNPT.-

Broadband internet services need faster speeds 

The Ministry of Information and Communications has issued a circular to stipulate that broadband internet access should have a download speed from 256Kbps up.

The Q4 2011 report on the global internet speed by Akamai, a network specialising in providing internet content in the US, showed that Viet Nam had an average speed of 1.664 Mbps, lower than the average level of 2.3 Mbps in the world.

Thirteen per cent of internet connections had a speed lower than 256 Kbps while 2 per cent had a speed higher than 5 Mbps. In the 10-country ASEAN bloc, Viet Nam ranked behind Thailand (3.054 Mbps), Malaysia (1.8 Mbps) and Singapore (4.6 Mbps).-

Source: VNN