Motorola has recently announced that it will expand the GSM network of Vinaphone, a Vietnamese leading mobile operator, subsidiary of VNPT (Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications). The whole deal is worth about 28 million USD and will allow Vinaphone to "spread" its network in no less than 12 new provinces in north of Vietnam. This comes after a new series of contracts were signed by Motorola and VNPT, during a ceremony held in Washington, contracts that consolidate the Moto-VNPT cooperation started 12 years ago.

By 2009, Motorola will deploy over 1,000 new cell sites, allowing Vinaphone to offer GPRS and EDGE services to more users, in both rural and urban areas.

Talking about the new deal with VNPT, Ray Owen, general director of Motorola Vietnam, said: "Motorola is committed to provide leading communications technology to meet the growing demand of Vinaphone in providing high quality and reliable voice and data communications services to subscribers. The contracts with Vinaphone reinforce Motorola's leadership and commitment in the GSM market and our long-term collaboration with Vinaphone allows the two companies to share knowledge and experiences in delivering best-in-class mobile network and services to users in Viet Nam and support the country's economic growth."

Dr. Hoang Trung Hai, chief executive officer of Vinaphone, completed: "Motorola is an industry leader and we are pleased to work with them in GSM network deployment. The contracts aim to expand our GSM network deployed in the northern provinces of Viet Nam last year. It will enable us to provide better coverage, capacity and user experience in rural and suburban areas."

Although it has a population of slightly over 86 million, Vietnam only has about 23 million mobile users. This is mainly because, although in the last years its economy has been continuously growing, the country is still poor as compared to other Asian states like Japan or South Korea.