Vietnam’s Viettel will this week launch mobile operations in Peru, via local subsidiary Bitel.
Peru’s telecom regulator, Osiptel, has given Viettel a deadline of launching services by July 26, BNAmericasreported.
Viettel won a 20-year concession to provide mobile services on the 1900-MHz band in January 2011, and another 20-year concession on the 900-MHz band in August 2012.
But according to reports, Viettel’s rollout has been set back by issues including difficulties in obtaining municipal permits to install antennas.
Bitel plans to offer Vietnamese handsets to go with its mobile plans, including a touchscreen dual-SIM model priced at just 110 sols ($39.40).
Viettel already has operations in Laos, Cambodia, East Timor, Mozambique, Cameroon and Haiti as well as Vietnam. The company is aiming to grow its international operations to account for 30% of total revenues by 2020.
Viettel isn’t the only APAC operator making moves to further expand outside of the region. The Philippines’ PLDT has announced plans to further extend its presence in the US and Europe as part of its international growth ambitions.
PLDT launches MVNO services in the US west coast in June, via subsidiary PLDT US Mobility. Now the operator is looking to expand to the east coast, where the majority of US-based Philippines expats reside, the Philippines Starreported.
The operator’s US network operator partner is T-Mobile USA.
PLDT is also considering expanding its presence in Europe, and is currently examining the Spanish market. PLDT has existing MVNO deals with operators in the UK, the US, Macau, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Guam, Taiwan and Singapore.