Viettel Rolls Out Dedicated Roaming Packages for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

Viettel — Vietnam’s largest mobile operator — has been building out a set of dedicated roaming packages that make travelling between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia noticeably simpler than it used to be. The reason it works so well comes down to something most roaming deals can’t offer: Viettel doesn’t just have a roaming agreement with the networks in Laos and Cambodia — it owns them.

One company, three national networks

Viettel Telecom is a state-owned enterprise under Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence, and by far the country’s dominant carrier — holding roughly 54-56% of the Vietnamese mobile market in recent years. What sets it apart regionally is Viettel Global’s overseas expansion: the same group that runs the network in Vietnam also operates Unitel in Laos and Metfone in Cambodia.

• Vietnam (Viettel): the dominant operator by coverage, including rural and mountainous areas — Ha Giang, Sapa, Phong Nha, the Mekong Delta — with some of the country’s strongest 4G/5G infrastructure.
• Laos (Unitel): launched around 2009-2010 as the Star Telecom joint venture, and now the largest operator in Laos by subscribers and infrastructure — thousands of base stations, roughly 83%+ 4G coverage, and Laos’s first commercial 5G.
• Cambodia (Metfone): launched around 2009, and the largest operator in Cambodia by market share (historically 46-50%+), with near-nationwide coverage including rural areas.

Viettel Global reportedly leads in 7 of its 10 overseas markets, and Laos and Cambodia are two of its strongest. That matters for a traveler in a very practical way: a Viettel SIM moving between these three countries is connecting to the same corporate network at every border, not switching to an unrelated local carrier under a roaming agreement. In practice that tends to mean more consistent coverage and fewer of the rough edges — dropped data sessions, patchy rural signal, unclear billing — that come with roaming on a third-party network.

Preferential roaming, activated on the spot

Viettel sells a set of preferential data and combo packages (the IRU/CR/IR series) specifically for roaming on Unitel (Laos) and Metfone (Cambodia), separate from its general international roaming rates — considerably cheaper than paying pay-as-you-go roaming at the border. They’re activated by texting the package name to 191 or through the My Viettel app, and worth turning on before or right as you cross the border; going in without one and paying standard roaming rates is significantly more expensive. Exact prices move around, so a Vietnamese Viettel subscriber should check the current lineup in the My Viettel app or by dialling *191# rather than relying on a fixed figure.

Why this setup works well for a Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia trip

A few things stack in Viettel’s favour for anyone moving across all three countries on one trip rather than staying in a single country:

• No SIM swap at the border. Viettel’s roaming packs are designed so a Vietnamese Viettel number keeps working, at pre-agreed rates, the moment you land in Laos or Cambodia — no separate local SIM to buy and register at each stop.
• Rural coverage in Vietnam specifically. If your route includes anywhere outside the main cities — Sapa, Phong Nha, the Mekong Delta — Viettel’s domestic network is generally the strongest of the Vietnamese carriers in exactly those areas.
• The dual-SIM option. Because this is a roaming add-on to an existing Vietnamese number rather than a fresh local SIM, it works well as a secondary line if you want to keep a home SIM active alongside it.

The honest trade-off: if you’re spending most of your trip in just one of these countries rather than moving between all three, a local tourist SIM or eSIM bought directly for that country will usually give you more data per dollar than a roaming add-on. Roaming packages are priced for convenience across borders, not for being the cheapest way to get data within a single country.

The same network, sold as one eSIM you can buy today

Unitel (Laos), Metfone (Cambodia) and Viettel (Vietnam) being one integrated group is also exactly why our own shop can offer a single eSIM covering all three countries on one profile — no roaming add-on, no Vietnamese number required, no border-crossing SIM swap, and no separate registration in each country:

Plan	Data	Price
7 days	14GB total (2GB/day)	$14.90
15 days	30GB total (2GB/day)	$17.90
30 days	60GB total (2GB/day)	$25.90

Install it before you fly and it’s already active on landing — no local number to set up first. If your trip covers Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam: see the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam eSIM plans.