HANOI, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's military-run telecom provider Viettel has been valued at 3.178 billion U.S. dollars by the world's leading business valuation consultant Brand Finance, Vietnam News Agency reported on Monday.
In Brand Finance's list of the world's 300 valuable telecom brands in 2018, Viettel ranked 47th, up one place from 2017, equivalent to Singtel, the top in Singapore, and Ooredoo, the number one in the Middle East.
In 2018, Viettel founded telecom, cyber security and high-tech defense industries and declared to embark on the fourth development stage with the goal of going global and pioneering in the fourth industrial revolution.
Viettel has a significant presence in 12 countries and a customer base with more than 85 million subscribers across Asia, Africa and America. It has also invested in research, manufacturing and successful commercialization of strategic weapons, high-tech military equipment and telecom network equipment, noted the agency.
By the end of last year, Vietnam had 129.9 million fixed and mobile phone subscribers, including 125.6 million mobile phone ones, and nearly 13 million fixed broadband internet subscribers, according to the country's General Statistics Office.
Vietnam made total telecommunications revenues of 395.8 trillion Vietnamese dong (17.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, said the office.
