VNPT temporarily suspends VMS connection from 7-11: Offshore fishermen worry about losing signal

Hundreds of fishermen with offshore fishing boats in Ho Chi Minh City are very worried that they will lose connection to their vehicle monitoring system (VMS) while operating at sea, due to using equipment from the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT).

According to fishermen's feedback, on October 6, VNPT issued a notice about temporarily suspending the connection and synchronization of VNPT-VSS fishing vessel tracking data to the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Surveillance's Data Center system from November 7. The reason given was that a satellite problem interrupted the transmission, causing the device signal to become unstable.

This has caused a lot of concern among the fishing community. Fishing vessels at sea can be considered non-compliant with the voyage monitoring system (VMS) regulations if they are disconnected. This is especially the decisive stage in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

To be proactive, some fishing boat owners have switched VMS equipment to another supplier to ensure maintaining the fishing boat VMS signal when participating in activities at sea.

Vessel monitoring system (VMS) mounted on fishing boats of fishermen

Faced with fishermen's concerns, Ms. Pham Thi Na, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the IUU Steering Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, explained: "Currently, there are about 200 vehicles using VMS equipment of the network operator VNPT. To address fishermen's concerns, the Department of Agriculture and Environment has sent an urgent document to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment requesting intervention with the network operator VNPT. Accordingly, VNPT must have a roadmap for disconnecting. Only when fishing boats dock at port and replace other equipment can the network operator disconnect. In particular, the network operator has sold the equipment and collected service fees, so when fishermen switch, it must be responsible for the fishermen."

THANH HUY

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/vnpt-tam-ngung-ket-noi-vms-tu-7-11-ngu-dan-danh-bat-xa-bo-lo-mat-tin-hieu-post821434.html