Hanoi (VNA) - All telecom operators inthe country have reported big profits in the first nine months of this year.

Telecom service providers VNPT,Viettel, MobiFone, VTC and VietnamPost have posted high growth rates inrevenue, profit and state budget contributions, online newspaper ictnews.vn.inreported.

It quoted Tran Manh Hung, Chairmanof the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), as saying at ameeting of the information and communications sector in Hanoithis week that thegroup’s Jan-Sept profit has met 75 percent of the plan, reaching 3,57trillion VND (166.6 million USD).

VNPT’s VinaPhone lost two millionsubscribers over the same period last year as it prevented unregistered SIMcards and pre-activated subscribers, the report said.

Hoang Son, Deputy General Directorof the military-run telecom group Viettel, said group’s revenue forSeptember  reached 20.1 trillion VND (893.3 million USD). Viettel contributed around 2.9 trillion VND to the State Budget in the first nine monthsof the year, he said.

The number of Viettel’s 3G subscribersupgrading to 4G reached nearly seven million, Son added.

Cao Duy Hai, MobiFone General Director, said the corporation had signed nearly 700,000 new subscribers inSeptember.

Its after tax profit in the thirdquarter is estimated at 760 billion VND, fulfilling 75.6 percent of thetarget assigned by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Nguyen Hai Thanh, deputy generaldirector of VietnamPost, said that VietnamPost had earned profits of 168billion VND in Jan­-Sept, meeting 75 percent of its yearly plan.

Reducing spam

Also at the meeting, VNPT reportedthat the company blocked 56,000 spam messages in September, or more than 1,800a day.

It also blocked 713 subscribers lastmonth, at about 25 each day, reported online newspaper baotintuc.vn.

Also in September, Viettel blockedmore than 5,000 subscribers, and about five million spam messages.

Meanwhile, MobiFone had blocked950,000 subscribers this year, as of September 15. The corporation reportedthat it blocked 47,850 subscribers in the third quarter.

The three largest operators,VinaPhone, Viettel and MobiFone, have all said they have invested significantlyin spam filtering systems.

Minister of Information andCommunications Trương Minh Tuấn has directed the Vietnam Telecommunications Authorityto co-ordinate with related agencies to study feasible economic and technicalplans to minimise spam and junk calls.

Viettel, VNPT, MobiFone,Vietnamobile and Gtel had signed a commitment to block spam on May 11 lastyear. The agreement took effect on July 1 this year.-VNA