Queues form for lucky SIM cards

Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group offer 1,000 lucky mobile-phone SIM cards with the digits 088 in Ha Noi and HCM City yesterday. VNPT will offer more lucky SIM cards today nationwide. — VNS Photo Truong Vi

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — People queued up for lucky mobile-phone SIM cards from local telecoms company Vinaphone in the north and the south of Viet Nam yesterday.

Many Vietnamese people believe that the number eight is lucky, the SIM cards on offer began with the digits 088, making them very lucky cards.

The provider offered 500 new SIM cards at 75 Dinh Tien Hoang Street in Ha Noi and another 500 on Pasteur Street in HCM City. The cars were also available on the website http://chonso.vinaphone.com.vn.

Vinaphone advertised the cars on a first-come first-served basis provider, so Nguyen Thi Hien, in Ha Noi's Ba Dinh District, lined up early in the morning yesterday and got a sim with a number she liked. Nguyen Van Trong lined up later and after waiting more than an hour failed to get the number he wanted.

From today, more Vinaphone SIM cards will be distributed nationwide online and at Vinaphone shops.

According to Vinaphone, the new SIM cards serve as a mobile number and allow users to surf the internet through smartphones and tablets.

With the new SIM cards, pre-paid customers paid VND148,000 (US$7) per month for the whole package including 288 calling minutes, 288 SMS texts, and 600 MB data in the first three months.

Pay as you go customers were offered six different packages which included calling, SMS and data like the in pre-paid package, roaming and other free services.

Also seeing the attraction of the number eight, Viettel and MobiFone launched their new SIM cards with the three first digits being 086 and 089 respectively. In total, the three providers will provide 3 million new SIM cards in March.

With a population of 90 million people, of whom 39 per cent use the Internet, Viet Nam is an attract telecommunications market. Last year, Viettel, MobiFone and Vinaphone claimed to have a total 130 million subscribers. — VNS