The total included 82 million mobile phones and 19.7 million landlines, wireless home phones and intra-city mobile networks.

These figures indicate sharp growth in the domestic telecom market, said the ministry.

MoIC Minister Le Doan Hop said the domestic telephone market has developed well over the last two years, despite the global economic crisis and resulting inflation.

Revenue was still up and many mobile phone service providers were entering the market, Mr. Hop said, adding that mobile phone service charges were getting cheaper.

“The costs of mobile services in Vietnam is the lowest in the region and the world,” he said.

Early this month, Mobifone lowered prices for pre-paid telecom packages by 30 percent and Vinaphone has plans to cut its telecom charges for service packages. Telecom experts said the charge for mobile and fixed phones would continue to decline in the future as more telecom service providers enter the domestic market.

Vietnam has six mobile phone service providers: Vinaphone, Mobifone, Viettel, S-Fone, EVN Telecom and Vietnamobile. Next month, the domestic market will become Beeline.

Indochina Telecom and VTC are in the process of getting licences for the Vietnamese market.

Taking into account the rising number of mobile phone subscriber, the MoIC has issued a circular to limit each customer to three numbers with each phone network.

The cap is intended to conserve telecom resources and increase effectiveness and fairness, in light of the limited amount of mobile phone numbers available, said the ministry.

The circular also said that pre-paid mobile phone numbers, which do not register accurate subscriber information would be shut down starting January 1, 2010.