 Vietnam’s Prime Minister has asked the communication ministry to work on regulations for free call and message apps, in response to claims by major telcos that they are losing millions of dollars a month. News website Dan Tri reported Wednesday that PM Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered the Ministry of Information and Communication to draft regulations for managing free smartphone apps such as Viber, Wala, or WhatsApp, all of which run on Internet connections. The apps are referred to as over-the-top (OTT), as they do not come from the traditional telecoms or Internet service providers, but piggyback atop established Internet connections. The companies justified the increase as a compensation for losses they have incurred due to the apps. MobiFone said at a recent conference in Viettel also mentioned big losses at another meeting with the ministry early this year. All three telecom companies have asked the ministry to bar the apps until methods are established to control them. But so far the ministry has rejected the request, saying there’s no reason for The companies’ losses have not been confirmed by an independent third party. UK-based market research and analysis company Ovum has predicted that mobile operators will lose $32 billion in traditional SMS revenue to OTT apps in 2013, and that the figure will increase to $86 billion in 2020, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Thanh Nien News |
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