The Saigon Post and Telecommunications Company (Saigon Postel) and its Republic of Korea ’s partner, SK Telecom, have decided to shift to the joint venture mode of business in their joint mobile network S-Fone.
The decision has quashed rumours that the RoK partner is going to completely stop investment in the mobile network, the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper said, citing a private source of information as saying.
S-Fone has been operating in the form of business cooperation contract (BCC) for the last six years. However, the BCC mode has been outdated and considered by the foreign partner as a problem given that the foreign partner’s capital is increasing, but all legal decisions are still made by the local partner.
The new form of cooperation, however, still waits for the government’s approval.
The S-Fone network project has a total investment capital of US$230 million.
The two partners’ negotiation to decide on a new cooperation model prolonged for several months, causing a lot of rumours about the future of S-Fone - the third mobile phone service provider in Vietnam after MobiFone and Vinaphone.
S-Fone will hold a press briefing in Ho Chi Minh City in the next few days to announce the result of the negotiation process.
Vietnam now has seven mobile phone service providers, namely Vinaphone, MobiFone, Viettel, S-Fone, EVN Telecom, Vietnamobile and Beeline.