The Ministry of Information and Communications on June 22 granted licence to the Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC) to become Vietnam ’s ninth mobile phone service provider.

Accordingly, VTC is permitted to set up network and supply 3G mobile service sharing wireless frequency bands with EVN Telecom, provide domestic roaming service applied to GSM network for subscribers in Vietnam and have its own prefix digit.

By the end of this year, VTC will officially provide mobile phone service for its customers nationwide.

According to the Ministry, Vietnam currently has eight mobile phone operators, namely MobiFone, VinaPhone, Viettel, S-Fone, Vietnamobile, EVN Telecom, Gtel Mobil and Indochina Telecom.

By the end of May, Vietnam had had nearly 129 million mobile phone subscribers, 40 percent of whom use services supplied by Viettel./.