The Ministry of Information has asked mobile phone operators to be moretransparent in their subscription number figures, which are believed tobe falsifying in order to attract more customers.

In 2005-06 both MobiFone and Vinaphone claimed to have the biggestnumber of subscribers in Vietnam . However, after the ministrychecked they discovered that the biggest operator in terms ofsubscribers was actually Viettel.

The 3G (thirdgeneration) segment has experienced the same problem. In 2010, mobilenetwork operators reported they had a combined 3G subscription of 14million while the ministry said the number stood at just seven million.

The mobile phone market is growing quickly. Thenumber of subscribers skyrocketing in recent years from 19 million in2006 to 98 million in 2009, and now 123.5 million so far in 2012.

In a letter sent to these operators, the ministry asked them to sendmonthly reports relating to their customer databases.

The letter follows the ministry's decision late last month to requestmore connections between the customer databases of mobile networkoperators and the ministry's own data centre.

The ministry says the move will help them supervise the number of mobilesubscribers, phone tariffs and promotions, which will enable them toenforce prompt and efficient policies affecting the mobile market.

They have announced that the country's three biggest operators –Viettel, Vinaphone and MobiFone – will be required to report first andconnect to the new system, with smaller operators following soon after.-VNA