Group assignment topic monopoly and competition in the vietnamese telecommunications industry

Data ismainly from official articles.I.4 Research structure- Analyzing monopoly state in telecoms market 1996 – 2004- Analyzing competition in telecoms market 2005 – present- Suggesting

ĐẠI HỌC UEH TRƯỜNG KINH DOANH KHOA KINH DOANH QUỐC TẾ - MARKETING GROUP ASSIGNMENT TOPIC MONOPOLY AND COMPETITION IN THE VIETNAMESE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY SUBJECT: MICROECONOMICS CLASS CODE: 23C1ECO50109705 CLASS: IBF001 GROUP: 02 Ho Chi Minh City - 2023 LIST OF MEMBERS Order Full name Student ID Role Lưu Khánh Linh 31231024493 Leader Nguyễn Hoàng Bảo Châu 31231023123 Member Nguyễn Trà My 31231026567 Member Lê Hoàng Thiên Ngân 31231025053 Member Đào Anh Thư 31231020405 Member Trần Thị Thùy Trang 31231022755 Member Distribution I ABSTRACT Our nation's economic sectors are gradually moving toward international integration and complete competition However, monopolistic industries still persist in a large number of economic domains which require extensive research, and a clear path for the field's advancement to competitive one The goal of this paper is to analyze how monopoly and competitive markets are expressed in the Vietnamese telecommunications industry in the two time periods 1996–2004 and 2005– now, based on basic knowledge of the subject Microeconomics Specifically, the essay investigates both the benefits that monopoly and competition bring to their firms and consumers as well as the disadvantages that they have To support the argument made in this essay, the monopoly of VNPT and competition among telecom companies including Viettel, MobiFone, and VinaPhone, etc are investigated The study indicates that monopoly and competition cause both huge positive and negative impacts on the society and economy For competition, it increases productivity, creates economic strength, and encourages research and implementation of scientific and technical activities to enhance the competitiveness of products, while having a monopolistic market results in damaging the business environment as well as consumers’ demand coupled with doing harm on the social welfare Thereby, the group is going to suggest some possible measures to deal with the drawbacks of each market structure II TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT I LIST OF TABLES III LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS IV I INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Reason for research 1.2 Research objectives 1.3 Research methodology .1 1.4 Research structure II CONTENTS 2.1 Table of previous research 2.2 Telecommunications status in Vietnam 2.2.1 Vietnamese telecommunications market (1996 – 2004) 2.2.2 Vietnamese telecommunications market (2005 – now) .8 III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 13 3.1 Conclusion 13 3.2 Suggestion 14 3.3 Limitation 15 REFERENCES 16 III LIST OF TABLES Figure Table of previous research Figure Viettel Revenue 2000 - 2012 (trillion VND) Figure Market share of firms in telecoms IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS GTel Global Telecommunications Corporation IoT Internet of Things FPT The Corporation for Financing Promoting Technology NGN Next Generation Network SPT Saigon Postel Corporation VAT Value-added Tax VNPT Vietnam Post and Telecommunications I INTRODUCTION I.1 Reason for research Humans always need to connect and exchange information with each other, and that need is growing exponentially Thus, telecommunications are considered one of the most distributed industries to the development of the world in general and Vietnam in particular, which helps improve social life as well as the economy Under the impact of the 4.0 revolution, the telecoms’ opportunity to transform becomes much brighter when several new concepts relating to technology have appeared such as Big Data, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, etc The continuous rise of telecoms industry will be evidence of the modernity of a country Having realized the importance of telecoms in the national innovation process, the group decided to research the topic “Monopoly and Competition in Telecommunications industry” This study will give an insight into the formation and development of Vietnamese telecoms industry as well as how its market structure has changed through the period Thereby, what benefits and drawbacks of each structure will be known I.2 Research objectives This study aims to understand the characteristics and influence of monopoly and competition in the telecoms industry as well as others Then, the solutions can be suggested to minimize the negative effect of monopoly and competition in the market I.3 Research Methodology - Linking theoretical microeconomics basis with practical knowledge - Collecting data from the Internet, books, articles and previous research Data is mainly from official articles I.4 Research structure - Analyzing monopoly state in telecoms market (1996 – 2004) - Analyzing competition in telecoms market (2005 – present) - Suggesting solution for the weakness of monopoly and competition in the market II CONTENTS II.1 Table of previous research Figure 1: Table of previous research Ordinal numbers Name of research Research Method/ Summary Scale The study as a whole seeks to catalogue many of the The Impacts and Benefits substantial, tangible benefits for of Structural Reforms in consumers and for small and the Transport, Energy and medium businesses arising from Telecommunications APEC members’ structural Sectors in APEC reform efforts in recent years, Economies (Professor focusing on the transport, energy Christopher Findlay, and telecommunications sectors 2011) One of the case studies of the research related to the Vietnamese telecoms industry The empirical evidence for this Learning, Upgrading, and Innovation in the Telecommunications Industry in Vietnam: A Rent Management Analysis (Christine Ngoc Ngo, 2014) study is primarily This paper analyzes the based on 42 semi- industrial success of the structured telecommunications industry in interviews with Vietnam using developmental government rent management analysis officials, firm (DRMA) Moreover, it managers, explained the failure of the suppliers, workers, VNPT monopoly and the rise of and industry Viettel experts from 2010 to 2012 Competition review of the Vietnamese Telecom The report provides an introduction to the current and previous market structure of the industry, highlights some events (VNPT dominant role) and their Sector (Nguyen Thanh Ha, Pham Quang Thanh, 2005) impact and reviews key structural elements – government, operators and consumers As a point of reference, where applicable, this report provides international and regional comparisons II.2 Telecommunications status in Vietnam II.2.1 Vietnamese telecommunications market (1996 – 2004)  The establishment and development progress of VNPT During the 27 years of formation and development, VNPT has always been a pioneer in the telecommunications revolution with many outstanding achievements It can be said that the advent of VNPT contributed to a more promising digital life for Vietnamese people On June 26, 1996, VinaPhone (VNPT’s subsidiary) - the first mobile network of Vietnamese people - was opened It was not only reflected in the fact that 100% of this enterprise's capital was from domestic sources but also in human resources (VinaPhone: Hành Trình 25 Năm Tiên Phong Về Công Nghệ Và Chuyển Đổi Số, n.d.) More importantly, VinaPhone was also the first mobile network to deploy fixed-to-mobile messaging From 1996 to 1997, mobile phones were unfamiliar to people; However, VinaPhone has contributed significantly to the telecom revolution in Vietnam when making mass customers know more about mobile Additionally, throughout those years, VinaPhone network only covered 18 provinces and cities, but by 1999, owing to the rapid quality development and the diversity of services, VinaPhone became the first mobile network to cover 100% of provinces and cities nationwide This was a great achievement and also a great effort that VinaPhone mobile network had after nearly years, making VinaPhone the number one telecommunications service provider in Vietnam (Chi Tiết Tin Tức - VNPT, n.d.) As part of the rapid development of new services to increase the number of subscribers and the quality of customer service, the prepaid subscription service launched at the end of 1999 had created a boom in subscriber growth and created new advantages for the VinaPhone mobile network With this event, VinaPhone continued to mark the milestone as the first mobile network to deploy prepaid service packages, accelerating the roadmap to popularize mobile services in Vietnam Also in the same year, VinaPhone was the first operator to launch international roaming services to countries and territories, namely Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong (Chi Tiết Tin Tức - VNPT, n.d.) With the above achievements and several more, from the first time it was launched to the next years, VNPT was a state-owned company and dominated the telecoms market  VNPT was a price maker in telecoms market As the sole supplier in the market, VNPT was given a right to influence the price of its output in the telecom industry.  The company gained a huge profit from consumers since they had no other choices except for VinaPhone or MobiFone (both under VNPT) when making calls and messaging Some may ask why no telecom companies entered the market to break the monopoly and be in a price competition with VNPT; However, constructing a whole new telecom network at that time required a great cost that was not easy for any firms to handle Whereas, if they insisted on launching another telecom service, they had to mutually use the VNPT network which only brought more money to their rival In its glorious time, VNPT had adjusted prices ignoring the government’s regulation More specifically, in the period 1993-1997, VNPT made a profit from the disparity between the actual phone installation price and its list price, which was nearly 1,480 billion VND (Hưng, 2004c) The Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam appealed to VNPT over this as it violated the price law Nevertheless, the government closed its eyes and allowed VNPT to use that money to invest in its basic infrastructure The public expected that after this scandal, VNPT would adjust the installation fee, yet in 1997, the company was brought to light that it still kept the price 500,000 VND higher per phone According to the General Department of Post and Telecommunications, there were 745,000 phones installed in 1997 and 1998, multiplied by the difference in price above (nearly 500,000 VND), the profit VNPT earned amounted to trillions of VND But it is unreasonable that in VNPT’s 1999 plan submission to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the fee difference was (Hưng, 2004b) It can be seen that VNPT, relying on the monopoly state, caused frustration among the public by padding the cost to increase the surplus The inspection results published in newspapers showed that the interest rate on VNPT's freight rates was about 20-30%, even over 40% while the allowed profit rate was only 5.4% (Hưng, 2004a) As reported by the interdisciplinary working group in 2004, for domestic mobile service, VinaPhone charged consumers 49% higher than tariff price (2001), 54% and 58% higher in 2002 and 2003 respectively Similarly, MobiFone charged consumers 58%, 59% and 57% higher than the tariff price in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively (Hưng, 2004c) Thus, users seemed to lose half of the amount paid for the aforementioned service In a short period from 1997 to 2004, the price elasticity of demand of VNPT’s customers seemed to be approximately zero In other words, despite dissatisfaction, they were insensitive to changes in price because of the necessity of digital communication  Monopoly state brought a huge profit to VNPT As VNPT had complete control over the provision of telecommunications services, it was allowed to reap significant profits With VNPT's significant investments in technology and network development, in August 1996, Vietnam had million telephone subscribers and became one of 60 countries with a telephone network of over million subscribers (Những Mốc Phát Triển Quan Trọng Của VNPT, n.d.) Two years later, total revenue of VNPT service increased by 20% In this year, Vietnam continues to be ranked second in the world in terms of phone development speed and over 2000 billion VND were paid to the state budget (10 Sự Kiện Nổi Bật Của Bưu Điện Việt Nam Năm 1998, n.d.) Moreover, VNPT had a recordbreaking year in 2003 with nearly 25 trillion VND in total revenue (equivalent to 1.6 billion USD) and over trillion VND in state budget payments (VnExpress, n.d.) More importantly, year 2004 witnessed an event that VNPT officially launched the new generation telecommunications network (NGN) for the first time using packet switching technology, allowing support for providing a variety of services from traditional to a series of high- quality broadband services Thus, VNPT's total revenue reached 30,662.77 billion VND, surpassing the plan by 2.38% - a 15.65% increase compared to 2003, which was 25 trillion VND Also, VNPT developed 2,631,836 new subscribers, with mobile phone subscribers increasing by 71.36%, while landline phone subscribers increased by 17.12% (VNPT Sẽ Là Tập Đoàn Kinh Tế Mạnh, n.d.) All of the above numbers have proved that the monopoly state not only brought to the business a potential market power but also made it more embattled in the industry  Monopoly market was a safe choice at that time Though there were some price-related troubles in a monopoly market, it seemed to be the most suitable market structure to be chosen for Vietnam at that time Given the historical context of the time, the government wanted to maintain control over the telecommunications sector to ensure national security In the Vietnamese government’s economic reform agenda, the telecommunications industry was one of the most important sectors to national defense and development (The Telecommunications Industry | | a Leap of the Giants | Christine, 2020) Two longtime government officials working in the industry explained that Vietnam’s leaders stated the need to retain complete control over the telecommunications industry in order to sustain the nation’s security and social stability, which was primary to economic development (interviews, Ha Noi; June–July 2011) (The Telecommunications Industry | | a Leap of the Giants | Christine, 2020) In other words, monopoly, at that time, was the most optimal solution to prevent our country from leaking information and other related issues Therefore, the industry at that time consisted of just one state-owned provider: VNPT, a government unit (and later a state-owned monopoly) Another advantage that makes countries, including Vietnam, apply monopoly power in the telecommunications industry is the potential for economies of scale Especially in the stage of developing a socialist-oriented market economy, granting monopolies to businesses helps control the entire market and achieve maximum operational efficiency by allocating fixed costs to a large number of customers This can lead to lower average production costs and increased profits, allowing businesses to invest in infrastructure and innovation Moreover, VNPT employed a crosssubsidization strategy, utilizing the profits from its more lucrative services to subvent its less profitable services Traditionally, VNPT has been the only operator to embrace the obligation to provide universal services in both the cities and rural areas New operators have chosen to provide services only in areas that are profitable, such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (The Impacts and Benefits of Structural Reforms in Transport, Energy and Telecommunications Sectors | APEC, n.d.) By applying this strategy, VNPT not only helped the outback expose itself to telecoms but also gained more for its own Hence, the more profitable the business is, the larger the tax it pays to the government And in terms of social benefit, the monopoly helps the authority with some welfare projects as well as maintaining public constructions  Monopoly inevitably raised issues However, it is undeniable that monopoly was believed to bring more drawbacks to the industry than benefits It must be the consumers who were negatively affected the most when the telecommunications market was a monopoly because the firm can charge unpredictable prices That is called price-fixing This is due to the fact that the monopoly sold essential goods and services that were hardly substituted Hence, consumers had no alternatives but to continue buying the product though the price was high It would be especially true when the demand for telecommunication is inelastic, which means consumers are less sensitive to price changes An example of this case is the telecommunication industry in Vietnam from 1996-2004, where the market was dominated by VNPT In 2001, while the General Department of Post and Telecommunications had a policy of reducing mobile phone and Internet fees, VNPT decided to increase Internet access fees via mobile phones which caused frustration among the public The average rate that could bring profit to business was only from 600 to 900 VND/minute (including mobile phone and Internet charges) However, VNPT chose to charge higher fees, for instance, at 1,750 VND/minute (with VAT) for prepaid subscribers (VnExpress, n.d.) If the network was slow, customers had to pay more because checks were calculated on an hourly basis As a consequence, the users would be negatively affected by the inflated bills, causing chagrin in society Moreover, despite the fact that consumers were charged a high fee, the product quality that they received sometimes did not meet their needs and was incompatible with the price This is attributed to the fact that monopolistic companies often focus on investing in what they want to enhance their revenue considering the absence of fluctuation in monthly customers Furthermore, customer service by monopolies is frequently dreadful as they are not accountable to the same forces as competitive firms For example, VNPT’s customers during 1996-2004 bear with many dropped calls and the Internet network continual breaking, meanwhile, the company handled problems reluctantly and did not give customers clear explanations, leading to frustration among society that they did not receive proper service compared to the massive amount spent on VNPT In a monopoly market, a firm can use price discrimination, which may benefit the business but harm to customers Price discrimination works by extracting consumer surplus and transferring it into producer surplus, thus reducing consumer benefit In other words, the more a monopolist differentiates prices, the more surplus it has Furthermore, when a business sells products at a wide range of prices, it will coincidentally create a barrier deterring others from entering the market As a result, the market power of the monopoly company can be reinforced Regarding the telecoms industry, VNPT used to apply price discrimination offering consumers several packages with different deals such as the G200 package priced at 260,000 VND, the G400 package priced at 417,000 VND, the G600 package priced at 570,000 VND, etc (VnExpress, n.d.).  Another downside of the monopoly market is that firms adopt the monopolistic characteristic of facing inelastic markets because they command absolute or nearly absolute market share, so they can make a profit without much effort This causes the establishments to be frequently unaware of the need to innovate their technology in order to minimize input costs during production Thus, degeneration of the industry can be the case, leading to difficulties in catching up with the progression of the world and making outstanding developments Also, stagnant technology may lead to inferior products and a lack of merchandise to meet the market’s demand Moreover, though the producer surplus in the monopoly market is quite large, the consumer surplus can be zero, even receiving negative value As a result, the total surplus cannot improve, which consequently slows down the development of the economy II.2.2 Vietnamese telecommunications market (2005 – now)  The competition among three telecoms “big bosses” The predecessor of Viettel was Sigelco, established in 1989 as an electronic device company In 1993, Sigelco became Viettel and step by step planned to enter the telecoms market After years of preparation, Viettel officially joined the market in 2000 but did not leave any impression until 2005, when it started to break up the monopoly of VNPT in the mobile service market.   In 2005, the market witnessed a race to massively reduce service prices with mass promotions of service providers to attract customers Viettel focused on satisfying customers to gain trust and loyalty among them, which can help them constitute a larger market share and break the monopoly However, 2005 seemed to be a hard time for Viettel because it still relied too much on VNPT Many 098 subscriptions of Viettel, when calling VNPT subscriptions, could not connect This was a result of the fact that VNPT did not supply enough connection capacity to Viettel, just under 50% of the actual needs In the first half of 2005, Viettel sent official dispatches requesting VNPT to increase connection capacity to make calls from Viettel's network to VNPT's network run smoothly, but the response was not given due to the port numbers of the switchboards TOLL/VTN is over and investment in these switchboards is limited At that time, if VNPT had insisted on their plan, Viettel would have been bankrupt (Thanhnien.Vn, 2005) In 2006, service providers (Viettel, VinaPhone, MobiFone) continued the competition by shifting their attention from lowering service charges to competing on service quality, which is a crucial component in attracting and keeping clients (Hà, 2006) Though being believed to be a decisive element in breaking up VNPT monopoly, Viettel at this time was too “new” to have any impact on its rival More clearly, according to a survey conducted among readers of VietnamNet and e-Chip magazine, only about 16% of mobile phone users would choose Viettel Mobile network if they had to choose the mobile network again; while more than 50% of users would choose MobiFone network, 28% for VinaPhone network (and only 4% choose S-Fone network) (Hà, 2006) It was apparent that Viettel Mobile applied intense discount campaigns and promotions, but the service quality was not guaranteed, causing many customers to end up leaving More than ever, companies should know that the quality of service determines the choice of customers However, the situation has changed since Viettel became the largest firm providing 3G networks in Vietnam (2009) In 2010, when VNPT set a target of revenue of 100,000 billion VND to maintain its leading position, there were many concerns whether VNPT would achieve its goal This was understandable because, at this stage, Viettel began to gain revenue and profit of nearly twice as much as the 10 previous year Specifically, by the end of 2010, VNPT achieved revenue of about 101,000 billion VND, profit of over 11,000 billion VND, while Viettel achieved revenue 10,000 billion VND less but profit was roughly 15,500 billion VND higher By 2011, for the profit index, Viettel was twice as high as VNPT (Viettel: 20,000 billion VND, VNPT: 10,000 billion VND) The key factor determining a company's position is profit, and with all the data above, we can see that Viettel began to surpass VNPT in the race Ultimately, at the end of 2012, for the first time, Viettel surpassed VNPT in both revenue and profit, becoming the No telecommunications enterprise in the market In the current situation, Viettel achieved pre-tax profit of VND 27,000 billion (after tax of more than VND 24,000 billion); In contrast, VNPT only gained a profit of nearly one-third of Viettel when it reached VND 8,500 billion (Nga, 2016) The bar chart below illustrates the revenue of Viettel in the period 2000 – 2012.  Figure 2: Viettel Revenue 2000 - 2012 (trillion VND) (Ngoc Ngo, 2014)  In 2015, Viettel accounted for more than 50% of the mobile subscriber market share, corresponding to about 57 million subscribers and keeping a very far distance from the other two operators in terms of market share as well as number of subscribers (Thông, n.d.) This network was considered to be more professional in marketing, 11 sales, and communication For MobiFone, it was still considered to have the best professional business style and customer care In addition, MobiFone had an advantage in the southern region (accounting for a large market share); but in Hanoi and the northern provinces, the number of subscribers was not as high as VinaPhone Specifically, in Hanoi, MobiFone's market share was just over 10% (Thông, n.d.).  VinaPhone had advantages in network infrastructure in Hanoi and the northern region Despite such advantages, compared to Viettel and MobiFone, VinaPhone still had to stand behind in customer care According to the latest data published by Ookla, VinaPhone is still the mobile carrier with the fastest speed and the best stability in Vietnam, by the end of June 2023 In terms of network latency, VinaPhone is at the top of the rankings with a latency of only 34 ms, followed by MobiFone with 36 ms and Viettel with 40 ms, respectively In terms of consistency, VinaPhone continues to maintain its leading position with a very high stability level of 94.8% Viettel and MobiFone continue to stand in the remaining two positions with stability of 93.6% and 89.5%, respectively (Nam & Nam, 2023) It can be easily seen that the competition among these three network operators will continue in the future since each has their own strength in a particular area  Small telecoms firms had troubles in business According to Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Do Trung Ta, in 2004, the telecommunications industry was growing at a high rate of approximately 15% and was initially competitive The appearance of Viettel in October 2004 truly created a new dynamic for the domestic mobile information market 2004 also saw the explosive growth of numerous new internet and telecommunications companies, including SPT, FPT, etc Thus, at that time, the total number of businesses participating in our country's mobile information market was four businesses These businesses other than VNPT brought in roughly two trillion VND in total revenue (Báo Nhân Dân điện tử, 2020) In fact, VNPT and Viettel still held a large market share (Figure 3) Taking advantage of the power in their hands, VNPT and Viettel had expanded strongly, continuously oppressing small network operators and increasing rates It could be 12 clearly seen that small network operators had extremely limited survival space They did not have the ability to participate in the “money and power” game with the two “big guys” in the telecommunications industry at that time Figure Market share of firms in telecoms (MIC 2012) The competition between “giant” firms and others smaller officially began when VNPT arbitrarily cut Hanoi Telecom's connection channels without any written agreement between the two parties This not only violated the Telecommunications law but also damaged the finances of Hanoi Telecom and Vietnamobile Additionally, in previous times, both Vietnamobile and GTel Mobile had accused VNPT and Viettel of increasing transmission channel rental prices by up to 300%, causing disadvantage to tiny businesses (VnExpress, n.d.) The core purpose of competition is to ensure that the buyers and sellers have the right to choose among various products and services with competitive prices However, if VinaPhone, Viettel and MobiFone who account for most of the market share make an agreement secretly, the competitive market will easily lose its characteristics In 2013, all three firms simultaneously increased 3G price and changed charge calculation blocks with the identical charging method and price as well as the packages (VCCorp.Vn, 2021) It not only caused difficulties to the customers but also set a barrier for other companies since they lack frequency 13 resources and policies This can be considered as unfair competitive behavior which was against the provisions of Article 11 of the Competition Law on abuse of dominant market position (Hoàn, 2013)  Is competition a good market structure? Thanks to competition between businesses, consumers have the opportunity to receive increasingly rich and diverse products with quality and price suitable to their abilities  Viettel and VNPT with super promotions aimed at offering free calls or launching sim packs with high promotional accounts to attract more customers For instance, prepaid customers of Viettel received information about the arrival of VT200 - Viettel's package to start the race to reduce mobile plan price (2010) On April 20, 2010, Mobifone and Vinaphone launched a postpaid network plan "to celebrate International Labor Day": new postpaid customers of Vinaphone and Mobifone would be entitled to free 10 minutes of the first on-network call for one year, and several promotions to attract customer that these firms have released (Nhà mạng cạnh tranh, khách hàng hưởng lợi, 2010, May 19) The main purpose of the in-network call free promotion was to create a change in consumers' thinking about the incentives of postpaid services If a mobile network does not create benefits for customers, it would be immediately responded to by customers.   Competition is also beneficial for the companies In fact, the power of competition is apparent because when a new carrier was born, the old carrier had to improve its own capacity and had to better and be more responsible than before Competition is the driving force for business development, motivating businesses to find ways to improve their production and business efficiency The two leading telecommunications corporations in Vietnam - Viettel and VNPT have different goals and aspirations Yet the common point is that they are trying to surpass themselves and their rivals to become great Vietnamese enterprises, bringing great benefits to the country III CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION III.1 Conclusion In summary, from 1996 to 2004, the market, consumers, and the telecoms economy were all significantly impacted by the VNPT's monopoly During this time, VNPT was Vietnam's only telecom provider, hence it had significant control over 14 terms of cost, level of service, and technological advancement Due to the absence of competition, VNPT was able to establish its dominance in the industry, which could have a detrimental effect on customers There were less options for consumers, and they had to deal with more expensive and lower-quality services The industry's inability to innovate and grow technologically was another consequence of the lack of competition Conversely, since 2005, the telecommunications industry has seen substantial improvements as a result of the advent of competition New competitors have brought about better service quality, more options for customers, and competitive pricing From an economic perspective, the competition has spurred increased investment and innovation, benefitting the market as a whole However, the competitive market still has some drawbacks that need solving Overall, the transition from a VNPT monopoly to a competitive market has had a positive impact on consumers, the market, and the economy To maintain fair competition and optimize the advantages for all stakeholders, it is crucial that the telecommunications sector is continuously monitored and regulated III.2 Suggestion Telecoms market, about a decade ago, was monopolistic, causing many inadequacies for the public Therefore, applying a price ceiling is one of the antimonopoly measures The government should apply this method in order to prevent the business from increasing prices beyond the regulated level to earn huge profits In this way, if a firm wants to make a profit, it must reduce prices to increase the quantity supplied, instead of doing the reverse However, there is a more extreme solution that Vietnam has applied, which is to break up the monopoly At that time, the former general director of VNPT, PhD Mai Liem Truc, saw through the limitation of the monopolistic market He believed that if the market had not been opened, the mobile price would have been high, causing stagnancy Additionally, under the pressure of international integration, it will be forced to open the market to foreign countries, which increases the danger of losing the Vietnamese telecoms market to foreigners (Ly, 2023) Therefore, there is no other way but to open the market for other firms to join Only then will prices decrease and quality improve thanks to an invisible force of competition To eradicate monopoly, the General Department of Post and