To better serve customers opting for mobile number portability and switching to its network, Viettel will send staff to their homes.

Customers can register by calling 18008098 or at viettel.vn/chuyenmanggiuso or the My Viettel application.

They can also complete the procedure at around 1,000 Viettel stores in the country.

Two weeks after making the announcement that customers of other companies can switch to its network, the military company has received thousands of applications.

Others like Vinaphone and MobiFone have yet to announce portability.

Cao Thu Huyen, deputy general director of Viettel Telecom, said: “[Portability] is not a contest between mobile service providers to lure away others’ customers, but it is a chance to improve quality.”

In the latest test, Viettel reached an average download speed of 28.22 Mbs and upload speed of 13.56 Mbps for a score of 26.21.

The average score is 14.65 points in Thailand, 14.98 in the Philippines, 22.91 in Cambodia, 14.65 in India, and 21.79 in Russia.

Viettel has the largest 3G/4G infrastructure coverage in Viet Nam with 100,000 base transceiver stations covering 95 per cent of the population.

It has 70 million mobile phone suscribers and 33 million using data.

The portability offer is first for postpaid subscribers and prepaid subscribers can avail the service next year.

The Viettel executive’s claim notwithstanding, portability is certain to increase competition between telecom enterprises while protecting consumers from being short-changed by service providers.

Portability is one of the measures Viet Nam has committed to under the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.

According to statistics from the Viet Nam Telecommunications Authority, as of last May the country had approximately 124 million mobile subscribers, 5 per cent of them postpaid subscribers. — VNS