Vietnam’s military-run Telecom Corporation, Viettel, has entered the World Communication Awards (WCA) 2009 Finalists for the Best Operator in a Developing Market and the Best Regional Operator.

Viettel currently has about 36 million subscribers to its mobile-phone, fixed line telephone, wireless fixed telephone, and Internet services. It plans to increase the number to 40 million by the end of this year.

In the category of Best Operator in a Developing Market, Viettel is grouped with AWCC/TSI of Afghanistan, Bharti Airtel of India, Digicel Group of Jamaica and Safaricom of Kenya.

It stands together with COLT of the UK, Digicel Group of Jamaica, Interoute Communications of the Republic of Czech, and Pacnet of Hong Kong-Singapore in the Best Regional Operator category.

Last June, Viettel won the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2009 Best Service Provider in a Developing Market.

By the end of the second quarter of this year, the military-run telecom corporation ranked 36 th among the world’s 746 leading telecom service providers, as rated by Wireless Intelligence, a global database of mobile market information.

Last year, Informa Telecoms and Media, a world leading statistics provider, ranked Viettel 83 rd among the world’s 100 leading telecom brands, making it stand even before ASEAN’s largest telecom company, Singapore Telecom.

Established in 2001, Viettel is currently Vietnam’s largest mobile phone service provider and the first Vietnamese telecom company to supply services to other countries.

The World Communication Awards (WCA) is widely recognised as the most trusted and global industry event of its kind in the communication industry./.