Vietnam internet to be expensive

Vietnam internet to be expensive

HANOI (Reuters): Vietnam said yesterday it was more or less on track to launch public access to the internet in mid-November, but installation and monthly subscription costs may be beyond the reach of most of its 77 million population.

An official at the Directorate-General of Posts and Telecommunications told Reuters that the latest in a string of planned start dates, Nov. 14, was looking good.

"Well we've missed so many target dates before that this one must be more likely," he said.

He added that installation and monthly subscription costs respectively had been set at 450,000 dong (US$36.80) and 50,000 dong ($4) per subscriber. Online charges will be about three cents a minute.