Vietnam's military telco says 2008 profit doubles

HANOI, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Viettel, a major telecoms company owned by the Vietnamese military, said on Tuesday its gross profit last year was double that of 2007, reaching nearly 8 trillion dong ($471 million).

The Hanoi-based firm made revenue of more than 33 trillion dong last year, 26 percent above the combined revenue for the eight years ending 2007 of 26.22 trillion dong, the company said in a statement. It did not give a net profit figure.

Last year Viettel expanded its mobile phone network to cover the entire country, serving 28 million subscribers or 40 percent of Vietnam's total, while its 51,300 km (32,000 miles) optic cable network connects all communes, the statement said.

Vietnam's telecoms sector posted revenue growth of 38 percent in 2008, taking the total to more than 92 trillion dong. Viettel's revenue ranked second after that of state-run Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Corp (VNPT), industry reports show.

Viettel competes with Vinaphone and MobiFone, both mobile phone providers owned by VNPT. It recently launched Vietnam's first BlackBerry service.

Viettel is running a $30 million Internet data joint venture with Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom (2412.TW) (CHT.N), in which it owns 70 percent.

In 2006, it became Vietnam's first telecoms firm to invest abroad when it started Voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) services in Cambodia, then mobile phone, fixed-line and Internet services. ($1=16,976 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by John Ruwitch and Alan Raybould)