FPT Retail has soft launched its MVNO, in Vietnam with a “FPT Super Data SIM” to its employees

FPT Retail has soft launched its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), in Vietnam with a “FPT Super Data SIM” to its employees in the FPT Shops and FPT Long Châu pharmacies.

Employees at the 800 FPT Shop stores and more than 1,000 FPT Long Chau pharmaceutical stores will be able to participate and test its “FPT Siêu Data SIM” (FPT Super Data SIM), offer with a discount of 50,000 VND ($2) when choosing a SIM card with a new mobile phone number.

They employees can choose between two packages, the FLEX88 or FPT59.

The FLEX88 package is 88,000 VND ($3.63) per month and comes with:

• Data: 4GB per day
• Voice Call (On-net): Free voice calls to other on FPT SIM users as well as to subscribers on the MobiFone network (free under 10 minutes) with maximum 1.500 minutes per month.
• Voice Call (Off-net): 50 minutes of voice call to other networks
• Value added services: Zero rated (free data) access to YouTube, TikTok and FPT Play.
• The package is automatically renewed every 30 days.

The FPT59 package is 59,000 VND ($2.59) per month and comes with:

• Data: 3GB per day
• Free data access to FPT Play
• The package is automatically renewed every 30 days

The soft launch of the FPT Retail MVNO has been expected since Mr. Viet Anh Nguyen, the General Director at FPT Retail revealed in October that: “FPT Retail intends to launch it MVNO services to provide more services to customers and promote the ecosystem advantages of the entire FPT Group with many related fields – from retail to internet, television, e-commerce, communication services, education and training. We expect to provide official services to the market in early 2024”.

According to the plan, the MVNO would be pre-launched first for employees in the FPT Group from the end of November and early next year, the company will provide full commercial services.

After the pre-launch, the target segment that FPT Retail is seeking to attract is young, technology-savvy consumers who use big data services, require a convenient, modern customer experience and are proactive in applying new technology.

With the launch of the FPT Retail MVNO, Vietnam now has 5 active MVNOs. The participation of MVNOs in the Vietnamese market is expected to contribute to new types of services within finance, education, health, hospitality, entertainment, etc., fueling Vietnam’s digital transformation, which is already outpacing other markets in the region.

Company: Indochina Telecom

Existing Assets: Energy, Real Estate, Retail

Launched: 04/2019

Host MNO: Vinaphone

Company: Mobicast/Masan Group

Existing Assets: FMCG/Supermarket chain

Launched: 04/2019

Host MNO: Vinaphone

Company: ASIM Telecom

Existing Assets: "Super App", OTT, Travel

Launched: 05/2021

Host MNO: MobiFone

Company: VNPAY

Existing Assets: Fintech, Food & Beverage, Travel, Bank App

Launched: 05/2023

Host MNO: MobiFone

Company: FRT

Existing Assets: Retail, ICT, OTT, Education, E-commerce

Soft Launched: 11/2023

Host MNO: MobiFone

At the end June 2023, the MVNOs in Vietnam back then had achieved 2.65 million subscribers combined, an increase of 410,000 subscribers (+18.30%) in just two month.

The majority of the 2.65 million subscribers were with the MVNO Itel, which was the first MVNO to launch in Vietnam in 2019, while the MVNO Wintel (formerly Reddi) announced 122,500 subscriptions in 1Q23. The rest was with the MVNO myLocal (ASIM Telecom), as the MVNO VNSKY was just launched (May 23, 2023).FPT Retail-FRT has existing assets to leverage its MVNO on. Besides its brand value and existing customer base.

Firstly, as a distribution channel, FRT owns a nationwide retail network with over 800 FPT Shop stores and more than 1,000 FPT Long Chau pharmaceutical stores.

Secondly, is has technical and technological advantages, as FPT Retail can leverage on the strength of FPT Corporation, as one of the leading enterprise in Vietnam in the field of information technology.

Thirdly, FRT has the advantage of exploiting FPT’s diverse service ecosystem to develop bundle services such as fixed telecommunications services (FPT Telecom), content systems (telecom media). FPT Play (OTT model), VNExpress (electronic newspaper), e-commerce system (Sendo, fptshop.com.vn), and education (FPT Education).

FPT signed an agreement earlier this year with the mobile network operator MobiFone to cooperate in providing network infrastructure for the MVNO.

Mobifone has been very active in signing up MVNO partners and it is expected that a handful of new MVNOs will launch in Vietnam in 2024.