By Manh Hung Tran, Huyen Minh Nguyen And Tuan Linh Nguyen 

On 24 November 2023, the Vietnam National Assembly (NA) officially approved the new Law on Telecommunications (“New Telecoms Law“). This new law will supersede the existing 2009 Law on Telecommunications, which has remained effective since 2010.

In detail

The New Telecoms Law is set to take effect on  July 1, 2024, except for certain provisions regulating data center services, cloud computing services, and over-the-top communications services (OTT) services which will come into effect on  January 1, 2025.

The New Telecoms Law comprises 10 Chapters and 73 Articles that provide, among others, new regulations regarding the provision of data center services, cloud computing services, and OTT services in Vietnam.

Here is a list of key takeaways for your information:

The New Telecoms Law provides for a new regime to regulate “data center services,” “cloud computing services” and “OTT services”.

Unlike “traditional” telecoms services, these services will be subject to a different set of regulations. Following a light-touch approach, the law imposes no restrictions upon direct foreign investments into Vietnam for the provision of data center services, cloud computing services, and OTT services.

In other words, it is possible to set up a 100 per cent foreign-owned entity in Vietnam to provide data center and/or cloud computing and/or OTT services in Vietnam.

Providers of cloud computing services and data center services will bear various obligations under the new law, including going through a registration process or a notification process.

Regarding the data of users, they are not allowed to access, exploit, or use data of users that is processed, stored, and retrieved through the company’s services without the user’s consent. They also must take timely necessary measures to prevent access to information at the lawful request of competent state agencies.

The service providers are not responsible for the information content of service users during the process of processing, storing, and retrieving information. The service providers, however, are not allowed to track or monitor service users’ information, unless a competent state authority issues a lawful request ordering them to do so.

For OTT services, in case it is necessary to access functions on the user’s terminal devices to provide the services, the providers are required to (i) notify the users of the need to access the features and (ii) obtain the user’s consent before accessing.

A guiding decree from the Government will likely be in the pipeline following this new law, as many provisions concerning the rights and obligations of providers of cloud computing services, data center services, and OTT services into Vietnam on a cross-border basis are assigned to the Government to ameliorate.