Emerging markets spin off Hutchison Telecommunications International (HTIL) said Wednesday that it will launch its GSM network in Vietnam on Thursday, April 9.

Vietnamobile, which is a partnership between Hutchison Telecom and local operator Hanoi Telecom, will offer GSM services in 64 provinces in Vietnam.

Until recently, Hutchison Vietnam ran a CDMA network owning a miniscule share of the local market, and prompting the partnership with Hanoi and a switch to GSM.

The Vietnamese market is dominated by GSM players Viettel, MobiFone and VinaPhone, with smaller CDMA-based offerings from S-Telecom and EVN Telecom.