Vietnamese mobile subscribers will be able to keep their existingnumbers when switching to a different mobile service provider as of2017, a telecommunications official has said.

The Nhan Dan(People) newspaper quoted Deputy Minister of Information andCommunications Le Nam Thang as saying that the policy would helpVietnamese mobile carriers use their pools of mobile phone numbers in amore efficient way.

It would also force them to continuallyimprove their services and reduce costs while benefiting subscribers whowill no longer have to rely on a carrier to use a specific number,added Thang.

Under the mobile number portability scheme (MNP),the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) will build anetwork switching centre that connects all telecommunications serviceproviders in Vietnam.

The centre is scheduled to be completedbefore the end of June 2015 and the MNP will be piloted at least sixmonths before it is officially implemented.

The MNP scheme was approved by MIC Minister Nguyen Bac Son last September.

Threemajor mobile network operators, namely MobiFone, Vinaphone and Viettel,account for more than 90 percent of the Vietnamese telecommunicationsmarket.

Launched in 1993, MobiFone was the firsttelecommunications company to operate in Vietnam. According to the 2013ICT White Book, MobiFone was the second largest mobile network operatorwith 21.4 percent of market share, second only to Viettel with 40.5percent.-VNA