In July 2004, Hutchison Telecommunications (Vietnam) S.à r.l. (“Hutchison Telecom Vietnam”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Telecom, entered into a business cooperation contract with Hanoi Telecom Joint Stock Company. In February 2005, Hutchison Telecom was granted an investment licence by the government for the project and in January 2007, we launched HT Mobile.
While we offered a superior network the market uptake was greatly hampered by the lack of affordable CDMA handsets, in particular those with the Vietnamese language option, coupled with the trend of leading manufacturers to scale back handset development for this market.
On 8 March 2008 we received government approval to convert from CDMA technology to GSM. As a result, HT Mobile will transit its customers to an advanced nationwide GSM network intended to be launched within 2008.
We believe Vietnam offers some of the highest growth potential in the region. Boasting a large, youthful population, a relatively low wireless penetration rate and one of the strongest economies in the region, Vietnam is well positioned to grow.