Viettel targets ethnic minority customers

Vietnamese military-owned telecoms operator Viettel has launched a range of mobile phone packages and features aimed at the country’s ethnic minorities, reports Vietnam Business News. Speaking at a company press briefing, Viettel Telecom’s deputy director Nguyen Viet Dung said there are around twelve million people of ethnic minority across the country, accounting for 15% of the population, although only three million of them use mobile services. In a bid to tap into this underserved market segment, Viettel has designed a range of products for ethnic minority customers with a switchboard providing free inquiry services in the languages of Thai, Tay-Nung, Hmong, Dao, Gia Rai, Khmer and Ede. The company is also offering a variety of services, such as farming guidance, navigation services, storytelling and music, in minority languages. Viettel is the country’s largest mobile operator by subscribers with around 46.3 million wireless users at the end of September 2012, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database. The operator has rolled out approximately 56,000 base transceiver stations across the country.