S-Fone Network

cancelled

In March 2003, S Telecom was awarded a 15-year wireless mobile CDMA license by the Vietnamese governement. The company began operations in July 2003 under the brand name "S-Fone." S-Fone was to be the third mobile provider in the country. S Telecom was a joint venture between SLD Telecom (50%) and the state-owned Saigon Post and Telecommunication System (SPT) (50%). SLD Telecom, in turn, was a South Korean consortium 55% owned by South Korean (SK) Telecom, 43% by LG Electronics and 2% by Dongah Elecomm. SPT founders consisted of 11 Vietnamese state-owned enterprises working in different scopes. The total cost of the network was estimated at US$230 million and was suppplied by Qualcomm of the US. By the end of 2005, S-Fone was looking to invest a similar amount to expand the network. By 2008, SK Telecom expected S-Fone to have four million mobile phone subscribers and revenue of US$350 million. By end 2005, S-Fone had only 400,000 subscribers, last in the mobile market behind state-owned Viettel, which had three million subscribers after one and a half years of operations. The state-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corp. (VNPT) fully owned market leader Vinaphone and partially owned the second place MobiFone, which both operated on a GSM standard. In 2006, S-Fone anticipated signing up an additional one million subscribers. The company also committed to a $260 million investment in base stations to increase coverage. In November of 2006, S-Fone launched its own mobile data services to compete with other mobile access providers in Vietnam. Infrastructure: S-Telecom Invests $260Mln in S-Fone to Cover the Nation 238 words 8 March 2006 Vietnam News Brief Service English (c) 2006 Toan Viet Limited Company. All rights reserved. S-Telecom, the operator of the country's fourth largest mobile phone provider S-Fone, has announced that it will invest $260 million this year to upgrade its network to extend nationwide coverage and offer more value-added services for its subscribers. With this money, S-Telecom can expand its S-Fone mobile phone coverage to all 64 provinces and cities nationwide from the current 40 more or less. The company has imported equipment for the construction of base transceiver stations (BTS) for uncovered localities. In addition, S-Telecom will introduce many additional CDMA value-added services such as Video On Demand (VOD) and Music On Demand (MOD). S-Fone subscribers will also be able to access to internet, send chat messages and play mobile games. Beginning operations in July 2002, S-Fone has now 400,000 subscribers and the network expects to sign up an additional one million subscribers this year. S-Telecom, which uses Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology for its mobile network, is a $230-million joint venture between Singapore-based SLD Telecom and Saigon Postel. Apart from S-Fone, Vietnam is also home to five other mobile phone service networks, including VinaPhone, MobinFone, Viettel, EVN Telecom and upcoming Hanoi Telecom. They have a total subscribers of over 8.6 million with VinaPhone being the largest with over 3.6 million subscribers. Document VIETNB0020060308e2380000t