Jun 3, 2006, 11:38 GMT
Hanoi - The number of broadband internet subscribers in Vietnam has quadrupled in the past year, a government official and local news media said Saturday.
'There's a huge demand for internet services in Vietnam,' said Nguyen Thanh Hai, chief inspector at the Ministry of Posts and Telematics.
The growth of ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber lines) is largely due to dramatically falling costs. As a result there has been a proliferation of computer cafes, making the Internet available in even the smallest villages.
It is estimated that Vietnam has 12.5 million internet users out of a population of 85 million.
The figures were tabulated by Global Internet Policy Initiative Vietnam, a research group. It estimates that as of April, Vietnam had 227,000 broadband subscribers - 300 percent more than the previous year.
Vietnam's Ministry of Post and Telematics has made a concerted effort to bring consumers, as well as businesses and government online. But much of the internet usage has been fuelled by young Vietnamese who are addicted to online games and chat rooms.
The government said Friday it will step up inspections of internet cafes beginning July 1, after several people participating in online chat rooms were murdered.
'It's easy to manage youngsters at home with parental supervision,' said Hai. 'But when they are out at internet cafes no- one supervises them. They could log onto websites with depraved content and information.'
Currently anyone using a public Internet connection must show their identification. However, users report that café owners rarely ask for their papers.
The government also announced this week that game shop owners must install software intended to limit the number of hours gamers can play each day. After three hours online, players' characters will only be able to rack up half the number of points.
Broadband has been available in Vietnam since 2003, when it had just 183 users in its first year of operations. Today all of Vietnam's provinces have high-speed Internet connections.
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