Seven highlights in FPT Telecom in 2009

1. New General Director Assignment

After twelve years leading FPT Telecom, merging from an Internet center to a leading Telecom provider in Vietnam, Truong Dinh Anh transferred the “captain” role to his vice general director, Chu Thanh Ha (Ms.) who has stood by him from the early days of hardship. Though Dinh Anh has taken the position of Vice General Director of FPT Corporation he continues to be the Chairman of FPT Telecom.

For fifteen years working for FPT, from the saleswoman to vice general director of FPT Telecom, Ha has made significant contribution to the long term development strategy of the company and its business planning, leveraging FPT Telecom from an Internet center in the old days into a fully licensed Telco in Vietnam these days.

"With the assignment of Chu Thanh Ha to the position of general director, FPT can be proud of itself to be one of the companies that give appropriate appreciation to personal excellence. I believe in Ha. She will create a new appearance to FPT Telecom” said FPT General Director Nguyen Thanh Nam.

Under the leadership of the new general director, FPT Telecom has performed impressively with the over-completion of target profit set for 2009.

2. Unification

On April 21, the Board of Management of FPT Telecom approved the determination and approach to unify a number of Member Company. The unified companies started to operate under the new organizational and personnel structure on May 1. Accordingly, iVoice and iTV unified with regional companies to be the new FPT Telecom North and FPT Telecom South. The IDS Company and the VoIP department merged with the International Telecommunication company. At the same time, the Center for iTV development and the Call Center were established.

The unification has enabled the member companies to extend their business scope. Particularly, the business performance has improved significantly owing to the effective supplementation of human resources. The concentration of value-added services facilitates salesman to access to the customer base and to provide customer and maintenance services.

Simultaneously, upon continuing the advocation of concentrating all resources for steady development in the future, on October 16, FPT Board of Management approved the resolution on unifying three member companies who were providing content services including FPT Online Services, FPT Promotion Company and FPT Visky in Q4 2009.

The size of the unified company is expected to range from 700 to 1000 employees, specializing in the areas of game, mobile and advertising. “The revenue of the company in 2010 shall be VND 550 billion” said Luong Cong Hieu, General Director of FPT Online Services Company.

FPT Telecom expects to earn VND 3000 billion in 2010 with the network covering more than 40 provinces and cities throughout the country.

3. Exploring new markets

With the eight new branches established in the North and the South in the fourth quarter, 2009 can be considered the year of “market exploration” of FPT Telecom with fifteen provinces and cities covered across the nation.

The newly established branches this year include Nghe An, Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Nam Dinh, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa (FPT Telecom North); Can Tho, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Dak Lak, Kien Giang, Binh Thuan, Thua Thien - Hue, An Giang, and Da Lat - Lam Dong (FPT Telecom South).

Services provided in these markets by FPT Telecom include ADSL, FTTH, iTV, iVoice, and leased line, targeting at households and enterprises.

This move was to realize the expansion strategy of FPT Telecom in more than forty provinces and cities by 2010 and the target to service one million internet subscribers by 2011.

4. Early completion of challenging business targets

By December 15, 2009, FPT Telecom achieved VND 1.780 billion, completing 105% of the year plan (which is VND 1.700 billion) and earned VND 570 billion, completing 108% of the adjusted plan (530 billion Dong).

Three member companies including FPT Communications, FPT Online Services and FPT Telecom International completed the business plan, each of which was awarded VND 20 million by the general director.

In addition, FPT Telecom North and FPT Telecom South are trying their best to meet the committed revenue target by the end of the year.

Broadband services accounted for the largest revenue proportion of FPT Telecom, increasing by 40% compared to the previous year. The content service has doubled its growth rate in comparison with 2008.
The 2009 total revenue is expected to reach VND 1.900 billion with the profit-before-tax of VND 590 billion, bypassing 11% of the plan.

5. Official launch of AAG fiber optical cable system

On November 10, the submarine fiber optical cable network Asia - America Gateway (AAG) was officially launched, which spans 20.000 km with the capacity of 1,92 Tb/s (1 Tb equals to 1.000 Gb). The total investment of this AAG was about US$ 560 million. The two-year membership and US$ 10- million- investment in the network enable FPT Telecom to exploit a capacity of 40 Gbps.

Accordingly, FPT Telecom shall be able to make direct connection to seventeen leading telco in the region, to At&T and Telstra, enjoying the opportunities to cooperate and develop, offering the best end-to-end ICT solutions to the enterprises community in Vietnam.

The company also invested in the Ho Chi Minh City- Vung Tau route to utilize this capacity, in which 10 Gbps of international traffic volume is used, increasing the total amount of international volume employed by FPT Telecom to 35 Gbps.

To date, FPT Telecom has invested and jointly possessed two international fiber optical inshore cable networks including the Vietnam-China cable network (connecting to China Telecom at Lang Son point, capable of exploiting 20 Gbps of volume) and held 1,7% share of the AAG network, utilizing the capacity of 40 Gbps.

FPT Telecom is expecting to invest the second inshore cable network connecting with China Unicom.

6. Introduction of largest Data Center

Being able to store 3.500 servers, the TIA-standardized Data Center managed by FPT Telecom International was opened in June in Tan Thuan export processing zone, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. TIA is the short form of the Telecommunication Industry Association.

The new Data center, with special power supply, is operated 24/7 with sufficient supporting and back-up equipment and devices. The Internet accessing speed of the center is among the highest, which is connected to the 20 Gbps international bandwidth. The total domestic bandwidth is 50 Gbps, which was doubled in Q3 2009.

In addition, the Center was invested with multi-layered security system, ensuring the confidentiality of customer’s information. Entrance doors are equipped with biometric authentication system (using finger print identification method), monitoring cameras, and high class fire protection system meeting the diversified demand of market segments ranging from small system hosting customers to bigger ones such as banks, financial entities, insurance companies, international customers and digital content providers (including online game providers, e-newspapers, etc.).

Currently, FPT Telecom International has possessed four data centers (two in Hanoi and two in Ho Chi Minh City), which has high speed transmitting line, meeting the highest demands on back-up mechanism, data recovery and risk prevention.

7. Successful trials for WiMAX

In February, FPT Telecom successfully completed trials for WiMAX technology (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) with the frequency of 2.3 Ghz at its headquarter in 48 Vạn Bao, Hanoi, with the technical assistance of NEC and the cooperation of Mitsubishi Corp. from Japan.

A series of wireless broad band connection applications were piloted successfully for users who were in steady motion in Hanoi-based area including high speed Internet access, video streaming, data transmission, and Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) without any cable installation.

This has enabled FPT Telecom to access various opportunities in developing and providing telecommunication services employing the WiMAX technology, which is also provided by other four vendors licensed by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication including VDC, EVN Telecom, Viettel and VTC.