Tuesday, 20/03/2012 02:57 PM
Viettel thanks society
A stable society is the most important factor in ensuring the development of companies. In return, businesses have a duty to plough back a part of their profits into society. This is something Viettel wrote into its business philosophy the day it joined the telecom market. During the last decade Viettel has tried its utmost, in various ways, to contribute to society as a gesture of our thanks for the support of tens of millions of Vietnamese people.
Tomato package: non-stop mobile package for farmers
Viettel believes that poor people will not be poor forever if they get support by providing knowledge, giving chances for them to access telecom. They will surely improve their lives.
The corporation wants to use its strength in telecom to help people access technology, and not waituntil they are able to afford it.
Viettel realises that information and communication technologies (ICT) are a direct factor in promoting change in life. In Việt Nam, tens of millions of people need the benefits offered by ICT, but don’t have the opportunity for it because they cannot afford it.
In 2006 mobile phones covered 27 per cent of Việt Nam, mostly big cities, and the tariffs were so high relative to average income. It was calculated that users needed at least VNĐ150,000 a month to remain connected while their income was only VNĐ450,000. Poor people earned around VNĐ140,000.
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Tomato package
Connection expenditure: 0
Usage time: no limit
Target: every Vietnamese should possess a mobile phone
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The Tomato mobile package appeared and brought awareness among Vietnamese that everyone needs to be connected and anyone can use mobile phones, not just rich people.
Mobile phones have become popular, and are not a luxury that is unattainable like, say, a Mercedes car as they once thought.
Every day Tomato signs up more than 10,000 subscribers, reaching 4 million a year. The figure is comparable with the development of the Vietnamese telecom industry over a period of 10 years after the first mobile phone appeared in 1993.
At present, 80 per cent of Tomato customers live in rural and remote areas, as targeted by the package.
These days we are familiar with images of farmers cultivating in the field and children riding on buffaloes with mobile phones in hand.
Mobile phones have become an essential item for Vietnamese.
Internet for schools: local teachers and students have equal access to information as the rest of the world
This is a long-term investment because the young generation is the future of the country. Such investment is needed for young people to access and get familiar with ICT. That will allow them to exploit humans’ huge information and knowledge resources, and to recognise new things.
This is a good way to familiarise the brand among future customers. Instead of spending hundreds of billions on advertising, the sum of money is spent for education. Millions of teachers, students, and their families know about the Viettel name and what Viettel does.
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Internet for school programme
Free infrastructure, equipment, installation, and use of broadband Internet at 39,000 schools throughout Việt Nam.
Target: Each school should have its own high-speed internet broadband
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In future, when they graduate, these students will grow up with knowledge and experience thanks to ICT, and might even become Viettel customers.
A country develops when it invests in education. With Viettel’s Internet for School programme, Việt Nam has achieved the global level of internet penetration.
“Only members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the most developed nations, have been able to popularize the internet,” said Santosh Khatri, co-ordinator of the UNESCO’s Education Programme in Việt Nam.
“There are dozens of countries around the world popularising internet use for education. Only Việt Nam has spread the internet nation-wide through investment by just one company,” former minister of Information and Telecommunications Lê Doãn Hợp said.