Andrew Lam
New America Media
01/16/2013 1:28 pm
Vietnam, a police state where freedom of expression can come with a multi-year prison term, is awash in cell phones. Whether for talking, texting or taking photos, Vietnamese are buying up mobile devices at a rate exceeding the country’s own population.
A sign of the communist nation’s rising affluence, it is also undermining the state’s monopoly on information.
For years Vietnam has been a major producer and exporter of cheap cell phones. In 2010, it reportedly exported $2.3 billion worth of phone sets. Two years later, that figure jumped dramatically to $8.63 billion, up 122 percent from a year earlier.
Now, with phones available for as little as $20, ordinary consumers are buying up sets that would otherwise have been bound for foreign shores.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-lam/vietnam-is-poised-for-a-r_b_2488756.html
