For 12 years Unitel has constantly developed public services with increasing quality

Since the establishment of the Star Telecom Company, under the brand name “Unitel”, the company has never stopped innovating and providing services to society with increasing quality, bringing quality for a brighter life.
Unitel is continuously developing to be able to provide high-quality services in telecommunications and modern technology in all fields and is thus well-equipped to promote digital transformation in Laos.

Over the past 12 years, Unitel has developed rapidly. From being the smallest carrier, Unitel has become the No. 1 carrier in Laos with the largest telecommunications network. It provides 3G mobile Internet and complete 4G and 4.5G coverage in every province of the country, and has the largest and widest mobile signal transmission infrastructure with more than 9,000 base stations. A 30,000-km fibre optic transmission line penetrates all remote areas and provides hi-tech services in all fields, which provide an important contribution to digital transformation in Laos.
Unitel has developed high-quality products and services serving society with more than 22,000 points-of-sale and nearly 3.5 million customers using services, and has a 57 percent share of the mobile phone market. This has helped increase the rate of phone usage from 18 to 100 percent of the population having universal access to telecommunications and convenient information exchange. This has brought closer communication to people in towns and rural and remote areas, and created jobs, bringing income to more than 25,000 workers.
This is an important part of actively contributing to the promotion and socio-economic development of the Lao PDR. Unitel has made Laos one of the largest and widest telecommunications infrastructure nations in the Asean region with the best 4G coverage and speeds (download speeds of up to 187Mbps/s) in Southeast Asia.
In addition to fulfilling its mission in telecommunications, Unitel is currently carrying out a new mission to foster digital transformation in Laos, as well as the world’s digital 4.0 industrial evolution. To this end, Unitel has provided various digital services such as u-money and e-wallet (financial service on mobiles).
The civil status management system was completed by Unitel for the government, providing high-speed Internet (fiber network, fiber high-speed Internet, 4G, launch 5G trial to prepare for 5G and mobile applications), established a data centre providing Data Centre – DC and Disaster Recovery – DR, providing digital solutions for business units, banks and other organisations nationwide.

Furthermore, the company has provided consulting on technology solutions for systems such as Data Centres, AI, Cybersecurity, Cloud (camera, storage, server, VDI) and more.
Unitel was the first operator to partner with renowned global entities such as Facebook, YouTube and WeChat, in order to design plans for products that will benefit customers in many ways.
At the same time, Unitel, being equipped with the necessary infrastructure, has cooperated with the government by: Signing a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Technology and Communications for the development of information technology integrated programme public administration system with electronic software; Researching and developing software/system standards; Signing a memorandum of understanding with the Lao ICT Industry and Trade Association (LICA); Signing a memorandum of understanding with the Irrigation Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade and Agriculture and Forestry to modernise the irrigation system; Signing an agreement to install an information centre for the management of ID cards for the Ministry of Public Security.
By serving society through the provision of high-quality products and services, Unitel has not only been acknowledged by the leaders of the government, ministries and unions, but has also won many national and international awards, which further certify its reputation as the operator of Laos’ top network.
For instance: Award for being one of the successful telecommunications brands to do business effectively in Southeast Asian countries. According to Brand Finance’s assessment, Unitel ranked Top 30 most valuable telecommunications brand in the region and No. 1 in Laos (2016).
In 2019, Unitel received a First-class Development Medal from the Lao government, along with a Third-class Labour Medal from the Vietnamese government.
Unitel won the Lao PDR’s Excellent Enterprise Award in 2019, ICT Excellence Priority Award at the Asean Outstanding Enterprises award ceremony in 2020 in Laos, won the Gold Award in the category “Gold Winner IT World Awards 2020” for leading the implementation of technology services for the Lao government, and the Gold Award in “Innovation in Public Administration Services” from the Stevie Awards.
In 2021, the Stevie Award-International Business Awards gave the title of “Most Innovative Technology Company of the Year” to Unitel.
By the end of 2021, Unitel’s cumulative revenue has reached US$2 billion, bringing profit to the industry of US$775 million and contributing more than US$545 to the state budget.
Aside from Unitel’s business success, the company has also supported Lao society in development and the use of communication services.
Unitel has contributed to numerous social projects: Free Internet support for 1,000 schools across Laos; Sponsoring scholarships for 148 poor children and children overcoming difficulties, with a total sponsorship amount of 296 million kip; Helping people affected by disasters such as the dam failure in Attapeu province and helping families whose houses were burned in a fire in Xieng Khuang province, totalling more than 60 million kip; Helping people in Savannakhet province to cope with the effects of flooding with 500 million kip; and financing tuition and support for the Lao-Vietnamese Bilingual School Nguyen Du, with a total of 460 million kip.
During the Covid-19 epidemic, Unitel has always been a pioneer in supporting the Lao government to battle the virus with technological solutions, participating in sponsoring the vaccine passport management system for the Ministry of Health.
In addition, Unitel has provided money, minutes call and data for front-line medical workers in all provinces nationwide, totalling nearly 12 billion kip.

By Advertorial Desk
(Latest Update October 18, 2021)