Vietnam’s Economist Intelligence Unit e-readiness ranking in 2009 was 64th.
E-readiness is a measure of the quality of a country’s information and communications technology infrastructure and the ability of its consumers, businesses and governments to use ICT to their benefit.
The fixed-line telephone penetration rate in Vietnam is among the lowest in Asia. In 2009 there is a penetration of 14% (of the population) and 54% (of households).
The Asia Pacific Research Group says Vietnam's rapidly growing youth population, with a high disposable income, has been driving significant demand for mobile services. It says aggressive expansion from providers is seeing over a half million new mobile simcards being sold a month in 2010.
Competition in the mobile phone sector is intensifying and call charges are falling rapidly. Despite the rapid pace of expansion, the number of mobile phone subscribers remains low compared with other countries in the region.
Technologies include 3G, GSM and CDMA.
Personal computer (PC) penetration has continued to rise, reaching an estimated 53.9 per 1,000 people in 2008. Growth continued in 2009, against the international trend.
The rate is much higher in Vietnam's cities and among professional users: 95 percent of the latter group have desktop PCs at home, and 1 percent of them are planning to buy a laptop, according to a survey by Alcatel-Lucent Vietnam, a French-based electronics firm.
The low rate of PC penetration in Vietnam reflects the relative absence of computers in rural areas. Internet services, which became available in mid-1998 in the capital, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City, are expensive, but there were about 21.3 internet users per 100 people in 2008 and 6.7 million subscribers.
It is estimated that the number of internet users was 22.9 million in December 2009, a penetration rate of nearly 26%. However, most internet use is still at public sites such as internet cafes and is mainly for recreational, communications or advertising purposes.
Internet access is generally slow, largely because of government firewalls that limit access to certain websites outside the country.
In mid 200 broadband internet subscribers in Vietnam reached a total of 3 million. This is due to an annual growth rate of 44 percent and penetration of 3.4 percent (of the population) and 15 percent of households.
(Additional source – Economist Intelligence Unit)
