Vietnam mobile phone service to reach disputed Spratlys in June (AFP)

HANOI (AFP) - State-owned Vietnamese mobile phone company Vinaphone is expected to launch its service in the disputed Spratly Islands next month, an official said.

"Installation (of the transmitters) will be completed in May," Nguyen Huu Thuong, director of a government telecom service center based in the central province of Danang, told AFP on Monday.

"Vinaphone wants to ensure information exchange between the furthest of Vietnam's district islands and other localities," Thuong said, adding the service should start next month.

The announcement could upset other claimants to the islands -- Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Except for Brunei, all the claimants maintain a military presence on the disputed archipelago of more than 100 islets, reefs and atolls, with a total land mass of less than five square kilometres (two square miles).

In January Taiwan rejected Vietnam's demand that it stop building a runway on the islands, reaffirming its claim to the archipelago but calling for a peaceful solution to the dispute.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/