The story of the person who missed the ship

About 10 years ago, a private enterprise had enough technical conditions to become an Internet access provider (ISP) but had to "miss the ship" because of the two words 'mechanism'.

'Before the time'!

In early 1996, Dr. Nguyen Quang A and a number of shareholders decided to invest in the establishment of a company named Ba Tin to catch up the opportunity to provide Internet services. And in the summer of that year, when state-owned enterprises with great potential were still struggling, Ba Tin launched the Intranet called Vinet with 10 telephone lines to serve access needs. user's. As a network built on the Internet protocol (TCP / IP), Vinet has a nice interface with many very fast search procedures. Thanks to that, many agencies such as Ministry of Industry, Office of National Assembly, General Department of TC-DL-CL . have ordered Ba Tin to build Intranet and online data management software for themselves.

As for Vinet, in order to have the content for themselves, this network has cooperated with the press agencies that are leading the Vietnam Economic Times. Next is the International Weekly newspapers, Old & Today, Business, Lighting, Computer & Life . And although Vietnam has not connected to the Internet, the information of these newspapers still reaches the global readers. When accessing http://www.batin.com.vn with the server located in Australia. It can be said that Ba Tin's Vinet network is the first train to bring domestic newspapers to global readers.

Therefore, Ba Tin has been ranked as a priority list to be an ISP with VDC, FPT and Saigon Postel (Netnam, though having technical conditions, but has no qualifications to do business because it is the agency's service. Scientific research rather than business, Viettel is not ready for technology.

But 'miss the train'

In March 1997, Provisional Regulation on management and exploitation of Internet services was issued with Decree 21 / CP. However, this statute only allows state-owned or state-owned enterprises to hold dominant shares as ISP with the reason to ensure information security of the country. Three news were out of the game but still hoped to be an Internet content provider (ICP). But this is also not successful because providing information on the Internet must comply with the Press Law. But according to the provisions of the Vietnam Press Law, the private does not have the right to issue newspapers. Meanwhile, foreign agencies in Vietnam are still entitled to ICP because Vietnam complies with the international convention on the Internet.

Dr. Nguyen Quang A, in the capacity of Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Informatics, at the time proposed to revise the Decree 21 / CP soon: First of all, the regulation required to set up servers in Vietnam is very childish because If the Internet is already located, it is the same place to place the server. And ICP concept is a very "private" story of Vietnam because the website has been set up, it is natural to update the information on it but no one wants to remain static. Therefore, he proposed not to apply the Press Law to provide information on the Internet. In addition, there are many other issues that need to be modified by management to keep up with development rather than development, based on management capacity as in the spirit of Decree 21 / CP.

The provisional regulation caused Ba Tin to miss the ship to become an ISP and had to wait. In August 2001, Decree 55/2001 / ND-CP was issued by the Government to replace Decree 21 / CP, along with the mechanism of 'all economic sectors are allowed to be ISPs'. Besides, there are some new concepts that are Internet connection service provider (IXP) and online service provider (OSP). As a result, a number of private enterprises have submitted their dossiers and licensed as ISPs such as QT Net, Viet Khang, Techcom, OCI . However, in the list of enterprises, they submit their dossiers to the General Department of Post and Telecommunications at that time. not named Ba Tin.

In this regard, Mr. Le Trung Nghia, a former strategic shareholder of Ba Tin, then acknowledged that there must be very strong potential to be able to survive and it is very difficult for private enterprises to get a door. His prediction is now true because with the explosion of broadband Internet (ADSL), only when it is active in transmission infrastructure, does the ISP last. And the fact that all private enterprises with ISP licenses do not rattle. 'If a business wants to do business, it must comply with the law but the opportunity is lost, even permanently lost! 'Mr. Nghia said.

The story of the company Ba Tin is a sad history of the Vietnam Internet start-up. Dr. Nguyen Quang A said that the draft Decree 21 / CP that he was invited to build at the beginning did not tighten so much. But in the end, for prudent reasons, it is necessary to tightly regulate, according to a former official in charge of the Ministry of Science and Technology, there is strict regulation so the leaders dare to decide that Vietnam will be officially connected to the Internet on the day. November 19, 1997.

The story of Ba Tin company is a clear proof for the difficulties and difficulties in the first time to bring the Internet into Vietnam, and at the same time reflect the process of innovation and integration of the country. .