The situation of internet subscribers owing their fees and then switching to another network to register for a new one has long been a difficult problem for network operators in Vietnam. The current loophole is that any network operator has the right to provide services to customers.
10 network operators signed
Carriers say that the debt of telecommunications fees has caused many problems for both consumers and businesses. Some users owe telecommunications fees and then switch to another carrier to register for a new connection, leading to system abuse.
This negatively affects competition in the industry, causing the debt ratio to increase, quality to decline, and especially the optical cables not being recovered and becoming waste. Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has organized a signing ceremony for an agreement on refusing service to customers who violate their obligation to pay ADSL/FTTH internet access service fees. Accordingly, 10 network operators including Viettel, VNPT, MobiFone, FPT Telecom, CMC Telecom, SPT (Saigon Postel Corp), HTC-ITC, Indochina Telecom, Netnam and VTC Digicom signed the agreement. The network operators will jointly build technical systems, processes, update information of violating customers and jointly pay the costs of infrastructure rental, setup, management and system operation. Customers whose names are on this "blacklist" will not be able to register for services of another network operator while still owing fees to the old network operator.
Ms. Tran Thanh Thuy, Deputy General Director of VNPT Group, said: "Debt is a painful reality. The development of subscribers needs to harmonize the interests of customers, businesses and the State. There needs to be consensus from network operators to achieve business civilization and a healthy market. This is the first step in testing and moving towards expanding other telecommunications services". Mr. Pho Duc Kien, Deputy General Director of CMC Telecom, said that users who owe fees and do not fulfill their contractual obligations have switched to other networks, causing great damage to telecommunications businesses.
Mr. Nguyen Phong Nha, Deputy Director of the Telecommunications Department, said that the Telecommunications Law clearly stipulates that enterprises are allowed to share information about subscribers with outstanding bills in order to collect or reduce bad debt subscribers. However, in the context of 40 enterprises providing ADSL/FTTH services to households, bilateral sharing is not possible but requires multilateral commitments. This is the reason for the initial agreement between enterprises. This agreement also ensures that telecommunications service users strictly implement the regulations and contracts signed with network operators, Mr. Nguyen Phong Nha said.
Users want stable internet quality, reasonable prices, and incentives to use. Photo: Hoang Trieu
Specific service quality according to package
However, according to telecommunications experts, it is necessary to review the "root cause" of many customers owing fees and "skipping fees" for internet. There are two reasons for this situation, one is the low quality of service and the other is that the control of registration and collection of fees still has many loopholes, often related to small businesses. These small businesses use inaccurate or even fake information to register for services. When the business dissolves or closes, it is difficult for the network operator to collect fees.
Mr. NHL (living in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City) said that the quality of internet services of many network operators is currently unstable, even frequently "dropping the network", the speed is still slow. Many users switch networks because they cannot stand the situation of unstable internet. Besides, internet fees are still high compared to the average income of many people, especially for manual workers, workers, students... The lowest price of current packages is from 100,000 - 200,000 VND, but these packages have very slow speed, few people use them, to get better, you have to choose a higher package. Low quality, high fees make many people not very interested in registering for internet subscriptions or having to constantly switch networks.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hao, owner of a small construction company in Thu Duc City, said: "Previously, there were years when we had to change up to 3 network providers. Registering with this network provider resulted in slow speed, switching to another network provider often caused network failure, registering with another network provider resulted in better speed but high fees and complicated procedures. Businesses need stable internet quality, reasonable fees, and incentives to use. Businesses also have a great demand for capacity and transmission speed, however, the price of high-speed, large-capacity packages is up to tens of millions of VND, packages of several million VND do not meet the needs of businesses, even small businesses."
According to a telecommunications expert in Ho Chi Minh City, to avoid debt and "skipping fees", internet service providers must review the quality of their services. If the service is good, users will not easily switch networks, owe fees, or "skip fees". In addition, network operators also need to strictly complete the service registration, fee collection, and fee collection stages... If these stages are strict, it will be difficult for debt and "skipping fees" to occur. Interoperability to handle customers with debt is necessary and legal.
Recording the opinions of many people and telecommunications experts in Ho Chi Minh City, many people questioned that when network operators signed a commitment to refuse to provide internet services to customers who did not pay the fee, users and businesses accepted to do so. But when cable breaks or the network slows down, the network operators do not compensate. Thus, there is still no fairness between users and service providers. Even if the service quality is "unstable", when the due date comes, the fee must still be paid in full if the network operator does not proactively cut off the service.
Users expect that when the network operator decides to be stricter with customers, it must also be fair with the vast majority of customers who are still loyal to it and still pay full fees. That is, the network operator must ensure the quality of its services. The contracts for each package signed with customers must specify the corresponding quality standards according to the package. If for a long time, customers are not satisfied with the quality of service, they have the right to request, even sue, for the network operator to compensate appropriately.
Telecom businesses are too competitive.
According to a leader of FPT Telecom, when a new subscriber registers for the service, the provider will have to invest in cables and modems at a cost of about VND2 million. It will take the network operator two years to recover the initial investment. "There is a network operator that offers a broadband internet package for only VND100,000/month. With this fee, it can only be cross-subsidized from other services to maintain," said a representative of FPT Telecom. Mr. Huynh Quang Liem, General Director of VNPT, said that excessive competition from businesses has caused the fixed broadband internet market to plummet to the point of no longer being profitable. Meanwhile, fixed broadband internet requires huge investments to reinvest in the transmission network.
T. Dung
Mr. Vu Hoang Lien, Chairman of Vietnam Internet Association (VIA):
Need for regulatory role
The cooperation of network operators to jointly handle the common problem of bad internet debt, and to jointly sanction customers with bad behavior, is what should be done for a more civilized society.
Usually, the debt for internet fees is not much in each case, but it is a large amount when there are many debtors. In the past, when users had few choices for network providers, the debt ratio was lower than it is now, and there were many providers. Usually, business customers have less debt because they need prestige and a stable network, mainly for individual customers. From another perspective, it is necessary to look at the debt problem legally, through the service provision contract. Usually, the internet provision contract is drafted by the network provider, the user only signs the contract, so are the terms fair and equal for both parties? From there, debt arises, but is it essentially that the user "skips" or is there something wrong inside? This requires the role of the management agency, to avoid the case where the network provider oppresses the user, the user is denied the service unjustly, illegally.
Mr. Pham Dinh Thang, Head of Cyber Security Department, Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT):
Only financial sanctions should be imposed.
For those who intend to "skip" the fee, it is right to have sanctions. However, this cooperation between networks should only stop at financial violations, to avoid the case where customers are put on a "blacklist" by one network and are also refused service by other networks. Thus, it is possible to return to the time when one network as before will become a monopoly.
In fact, the quality of internet in Vietnam is still not as expected by users, although the network operator has improved compared to before. Compared to other countries, internet costs in Vietnam are quite cheap, users also need to be aware of the need to pay for internet usage so that the network operator has resources to reinvest. Currently, internet installation in Vietnam is quite easy, users do not have to deposit or pay for equipment, so there are users who owe fees from one network operator and switch to another because they do not have to pay the initial fee.
N. Anh ghi
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