Firms fret as Vietnam drops digit to meet rising mobile phone demand

Hanoi

VIETNAM is ringing in changes next month to make way for a standardised phone-numbering plan, but is struggling to get through to businesses hung up on how much it will cost them.

The government abruptly announced changes to millions of phone numbers from March 1, keeping its business community on edge about forking out money to replace everything from shopfront signage, banners on trucks and buses, and neon-lit taxi signs to business cards, letterheads, invoices and brochures. "The cost for fixing the phone numbers is terribly high, but the invisible costs could be higher," said Nguyen Kim Khanh, an executive of Taxi Group, Hanoi's biggest cab company.