IT towards the rural market

The spectacular growth in the growth rate of telecommunications and information technology that Vietnam has achieved in the past few years thanks to the development of large urban and big urban markets.

The contribution of the rural, mountainous and island markets (hereinafter referred to as rural areas) is limited by many different reasons, of which the difficulties are mainly in the construction of an infrastructure. network to remote areas, islands and islands. Investment in large service providers and revenue is not high due to limited income of rural people.

However, with the efforts of many service providers, in recent years, in the field of telecommunications, people in many rural areas have also begun to access low-cost telecommunications services, for example, E-Com wireless landline phone from Electricity Telecom Company (EVN), wireless landline Home Phone of Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel) or Gphone fixed telephone of Episode Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) . Thus, it can be said that service providers do not "forget" the potential area, accounting for 2/3 of the population of this country. The problem is that service providers must consider which technology to use, both modern and suitable for the rural terrain, and can offer the most competitive service rates.

In another aspect, it must be recognized that competition in the market has made the speed of service provision to the rural market faster. The efficiency obtained after only one year of providing EVN's service with the number of more than 500,000 subscribers has shocked many other service providers. And immediately, other vendors have launched similar services that make service prices fall. Rural consumers of course benefit from having more choices, with more reasonable prices.

But that's what happens in the telecommunications market. As for information technology services, especially the Internet market, rural consumers still seem to be disadvantaged. In many places, especially in mountainous, remote and island areas, the Internet is still something new and strange.

The launch of the 'One million hours' free Internet access program for VNPT and the Vietnam Youth Union to 'universalize informatics, knowledge networking', support for young people in rural areas have perhaps a kick, creating momentum for Internet development in these areas. Thus, within 1 year, from September 2007 to the end of September 2008, the informatics universalization classes for youth and people at 2353 commune cultural post offices nationwide. According to organizers, it is expected to attract about 20,000 participants. With this push, it may once again be able to move the Internet service provider 's business acumen, creating momentum for providing more services related to rural consumers in the future. hybrid