Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT) has started to integrate the country into regional cellular phone operations with the signing of a GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications) roaming agreement with Australia's Telstra Corp.
The deal is the first cellular roaming agreement signed last week by the Vietnamese national carrier.
The agreement linked users of Telstra's MobileNet service with users of Vietnam's two main GSM networks Vinaphone and VMS-Mobiphone, VNPT officials said. Vietnamese customers of the two local companies can use their mobile phones when visiting Australia without having to change their SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card or phone number. Telstra's Australian customers will enjoy the same facilities in Vietnam.
VNPT said it expected to sign similar international roaming deals with Chunhwa Telecom of Taiwan, Cable & Wireless/Hong Kong Telecom, and Singapore Telecom Mobile (SingTel Mobile) in the near future.
SingTel Mobile said earlier in the year that it planned to set up a regional mobile phone network to bring an integrated service to customers across Southeast Asia, to be developed along with overseas partners from a number of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) alliance.