The regulatory agency will monitor Starlink service prices in Vietnam

The information was stated at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Science and Technology on the morning of April 1, when representatives of the management agency answered questions about the possibility of Starlink reducing prices in the future and creating competitive pressure on telecommunications carriers.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Cuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Telecommunications, said that Starlink is currently deployed in Vietnam in a pilot form, with limited scale, scope and time. The maximum number of subscribers is 600,000, which is only a small number, 1-2% of the total number of fixed Internet subscribers. In reality, the number of subscribers may be “much less”. Therefore, Starlink’s impact on the domestic telecommunications market is therefore assessed as not great.

After being licensed, Starlink operates as a telecommunications enterprise and must fully comply with Vietnamese laws on telecommunications, including regulations on price management. Starlink tariffs must be built on the basis of cost.

The Ministry of Science and Technology will closely monitor the implementation process of enterprises. In case a business shows signs of reducing prices, affecting healthy competition, management agencies can apply measures such as suspending the issuance of fares. These are things that have always been done in traditional telecommunications market management.

The representative of the Department of Telecommunications emphasized that technically, Starlink is determined to be “an additional piece” for Vietnam’s digital infrastructure ecosystem. Starlink will provide services in areas that are difficult to reach with traditional infrastructure such as sea areas and airspace, especially in incident response.

“Starlink does not compete directly with fixed Internet services in Vietnam, and it is also very difficult to compete, because Vietnam’s telecommunications infrastructure is currently at the top of the world,” said Deputy Director of Telecommunications.

Starlink is a satellite Internet service developed by SpaceX, operating with a low orbit satellite system at an altitude of about 550 km, much lower than traditional geostationary satellites. This is the first foreign enterprise allowed by Vietnam to pilot satellite Internet services. In mid-February, after completing procedures, the service was licensed in Vietnam, but a specific implementation time has not been announced.

To use, users need to purchase a satellite signal transceiver and register a subscription. After installation, the system will connect directly to satellites to provide Internet in full package form, with unlimited capacity.

According to the expected plan, individual users in Vietnam will have to pay about 435 USD in the first month, including about 350 USD for equipment and 85 USD for fees. The following months, the maintenance fee is 85 USD, equivalent to about 2.2 million VND per month. This price is significantly higher than domestic fiber optic Internet, which is only a few hundred thousand dong per month.

Sharing at the press conference, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui Hoang Phuong said that Starlink satellite Internet is a new service, deployed for the first time, helping to open up development space for new types of businesses. Such new models and spaces will directly contribute to promoting socio-economic development, contributing to Vietnam’s “double-digit” growth goal.