VNBusinessNews – Vietnamobile, the successor of HT Mobile, will launch mobile phone services in the first quarter of this year after it completes the conversion of technology from CDMA to GSM.

Nearly six months after applying to depart from the unpopular CDMA technology, the Vietnamobile network, which is identifiable by the first three digits of 092, plans to make debut in this quarter.

Vietnamobile will be the country’s fourth GSM mobile services provider after MobiFone, Vinaphone and Viettel.

A source from Vietnamobile told the Daily that the network would offer competitive prices to woo subscribers.

However, Vietnamobile has yet to announce its mobile services charges.

In March last year, HT Mobile received a license from the capital city of Hanoi to convert from CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) to GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) technology due to poor business performance. Subscribers to CDMA mobile services are required to buy phones from the service supplier while users of GSM services can buy phones from a wide variety of suppliers.

The operator invested an additional US$150 million on top of its initial capital pledges of US$650 million last year in the technology conversion.

In August last year, the network decided to purchase GSM network equipment worth US$600 million from Ericsson and China’s Huawei. Ericsson won the contract worth US$450 million and Huawei US$150 million.

HT Mobile, a joint venture between Hanoi Telecom and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunication, made its first public appearance in 2007. (SGT)