Determine starting price for all "nice numbers"

SGGPO 08/24/2023 12:14 PM

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that when the starting price for all "nice numbers" is determined, the auction will be feasible.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai chaired the meeting.

On the morning of August 24, continuing the 25th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) gave opinions on explaining, accepting, and revising the draft Law on Telecommunications (amended). Vice Chairman of the NA Nguyen Duc Hai chaired the session.

It is expected that the revised Law on Telecommunications will be considered and approved by the National Assembly at the 6th session (October 2023).

Reporting on some major issues regarding the explanation, reception and revision of the draft Law on Telecommunications (amended), Chairman of the Committee for Science , Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that the 2009 Law on Telecommunications stipulates the auction of the right to use telecommunications numbers and Internet resources (including Internet domain names) to improve the efficiency of exploitation and use of telecommunications resources and increase revenue for the state budget.

However, up to now, the auction of the right to use telecommunications numbers and Internet resources has not been implemented in practice. The main reason is that it is difficult to fully identify types of codes and telecommunications numbers with high commercial value, whose demand exceeds the allocation capacity to conduct the auction, and it is difficult to determine the starting price for the auction as stipulated in the Telecommunications Law of 2009.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung (right) at the meeting

In response to delegates' opinions, the draft has been revised in terms of the auction of the right to use the telecommunications number warehouse and the national Internet domain name of Vietnam ".vn" in the direction of only providing principles, while assigning the Government to provide detailed regulations to ensure flexibility in the implementation process.

The draft also stipulates the method of determining the starting price for auctioning terrestrial mobile telecommunications service subscribers instead of specifying a specific price of 1 million VND as presented at the 5th session.

Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Law Committee Hoang Thanh Tung requested the Ministry of Information and Communications to report further on why the auction was not possible and whether the provisions of the Telecommunications Law this time could resolve the problem. According to Mr. Hoang Thanh Tung, the current approach of the revised Telecommunications Law to handle issues related to telecommunications numbering and national domain names is basically consistent with the Law on Asset Auction and specialized laws. Determining the starting price for auctioning certain types of assets right in the draft law is necessary to ensure feasibility.

"It is necessary to ensure that after the law comes into effect, it can be implemented. Because the revised Law on Property Auction and the revised Law on Telecommunications are also being submitted in parallel. Therefore, it is recommended to closely monitor the process of amending the Law on Property Auction to make appropriate adjustments," Mr. Tung added.

The representative of the drafting agency, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, said that currently in the number warehouse, there are hundreds of thousands of beautiful phone numbers, even millions. According to previous regulations, each number must be valued. When valuing, a consultant must be hired, so the cost to appraise the price of a beautiful number can be up to hundreds of millions, but when sold, it can only bring in tens of millions, which is not feasible. "Therefore, this draft amendment decides on a fixed starting price for all beautiful numbers," Minister Nguyen Manh Hung explained.

According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, a beautiful number is offered to millions of people, which means the market value is very high. "When millions of people are interested, they will set a suitable price. If only 3 people buy, they can agree to reduce the price, but it will be very difficult for millions of people. If this bill is passed with the content of determining the starting price for all beautiful numbers, the auction will be feasible," said the Minister of Information and Communications.

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