S-Fone to switch from CDMA to HSPA?

Vietnamese telecoms company Saigon Postel has reportedly received permission from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) to migrate its S-Fone cellular network from a CDMA to a HSPA platform, VnExpress reports, citing an unnamed MIC official. In 2007 rival HT Mobile, which today operates under the Vietnamobile brand, abandoned its CDMA network after receiving permission from the MIC to switch to the GSM standard. After investing more than USD600 million on equipment from Ericsson and Huawei, Hutchison Telecom subsidiary Vietnamobile launched GSM services in April 2009. S-Fone hopes that such a transition will help to improve its position in Vietnam’s overcrowded and highly competitive mobile market. At the end of 2011 the company had an estimated 4.7 million subscribers, corresponding to a market share of just 3.5%, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.