Vinaphone has lowered its international roaming rates for calls in Australia, Canada and the United States back to Viet Nam. — Photo vinaphone.com.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Vinaphone, announced on June 18 that it will reduce rates for its international roaming services in Australia, Canada and the United States, while making telephone calls back to Viet Nam.

The third-largest mobile network operator's rate will decrease from 55.46 percent to 11 percent for international roaming services. The international roaming charges for other services were also reduced.

Roaming rate for telephone calls within the same network will be charged VND17,000 (US$0.8) per minute, a decline of 46.8 percent compared with the previous rate. Users receiving telephone calls will be charged VND13,000 ($0.6) per minute, a decrease of 13.33 percent. The rate for sending SMS will be VND8,000 ($0.38) for each, a reduction of 11.11 percent. Service charges for international roaming in the three countries will decrease by 25 percent to VND3,000 ($0.14) for 10Kb. The fee for message receipt will remain free.

The new rates will be applicable for all subscribers of the network. This is the second time Vinaphone has lowered its roaming rates within a year.

Previously, on October 1, 2013, the provider decreased all international roaming rates for telephone calls to Viet Nam, as well as cut the fee for call receipts by 44 percent from 29 countries. At that time, Vinaphone also gave its plans to charge roaming services in five areas. In addition, a data roaming package called U1 was launched in four more countries, including Australia, China, United Arab Emirates, and Sri Lanka, with the maximum rate of VND219,000 ($10.4) per day per subscriber (value added tax included) without advance registration. — VNS