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Wireless Federation » archive for 'DTAC'

Thailand’s AIS to lose it’s market share to TAC and TRUE Move in 2008-2010 (Thailand)

  • August 22nd, 2008
  • 1:17 pm

The Thai mobile market is a fast paced growing market. Coming into 2008, there were over 53 million mobile subscribers in the country. This was up from less than four million in 2001. With the arrival at around that time of two additional players in the mobile market - TA-Orange (later True Move) and Hutchison CAT – to challenge the powerful duopoly of AIS and DTAC, competition began heating up. There was also the launch of Thai Mobile, the TOT/CAT mobile joint venture. The market is now in need of some rationalisation; regulatory changes will continue to be a big factor in shaping the future market.
Thai telecoms regulator has said to issue 3G licences by 2009 and the providers will be AIS, DTAC and TAC.
AIS has earned the highest ever quaterly profits of USD187 million in Q2′08.
Integrated CDMA network will now be working under one brand, Hutch.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Thailand Mobile Forecast include:

  • It is forecasted that the number of total subscribers in Thailand will increase from 62.9 million in 2008 to 69.7 million in 2010. The wireless penetration level will reach 90.5% in 2010.
  • The largest operator, AIS, will be losing its market share to TAC and TRUE Move over the forecast period of 2008 - 2010. The market share of AIS will decrease from our projected 44.8% in 2008 to a forecasted 43.4% in 2010.
  • In 2010, it is being forecasted that AIS will have the highest ARPU at US$ 8.53 per month in the country.
  • It is forecasted that the number of total subscribers in Thailand will increase from 62.9 million in 2008 to 69.7 million in 2010. The wireless penetration level will reach 90.5% in 2010.

3G mobile services by DTAC in Thailand

  • August 20th, 2008
  • 1:30 pm

According to a local media report, Thai cellco DTAC is preparing to launch commercial 3G mobile broadband services in Bangkok in the first quarter of next year. $36million first phase will cover the capital in the first quarter of 2009 with a network spanning 700 to 800 base stations using the 850MHz frequency band and focus on wireless broadband services available on laptops. A second phase would cover Greater Bangkok as well as the populous provinces of Chon Buri and Phuket, followed by a third phase expanding coverage nationwide. DTAC’s CEO Sigve Brekke said that he did not expect 2100MHz UMTS frequencies to be allocated until late 2009, given Thailand’s delays in establishing a new broadcasting and telecoms regulator. AIS leader of the mobile market is already operating G mobile services over a small-scale W-CDMA network using the 900MHz band.

DTAC’s profits rise by 193% (Thailand)

  • July 24th, 2008
  • 9:51 am

DTAC, Thailand’s second largest cellco by subscribers, has reported that its second-quarter net profits rose by 193% year-on-year to USD117 million (THB3.9 billion), up from THB1.33 billion a year earlier, and THB2.35 billion in the previous quarter.
The GSM operator, controlled by Norway’s Telenor, also reported a 45% year-on-year rise in second-quarter EBITDA, and a 181% increase in EBIT. Capital expenditure was down by 4% y-o-y in the quarter, which DTAC ended with 17.433 million subscribers, up from 16.656 million at the end of March 2008 and 14.476 million at mid-2007.

   

Telenor Pakistan gets Abdullah as it’s new CEO (Pakistan)

  • July 16th, 2008
  • 11:37 am

Pakistan based mobile operator Telenor Pakistan appointed Jon Eddy Abdullah as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who will be succeeding Tore Johnsen from 15 august ‘08. Abdullah with more than 15 years of experience in the telecommunication industry, has been working with both infrastructure vendors and several mobile operators. He has recently been associated with Maxis Telecommunication in Malaysia as a Chief Operating Officer (COO) and with DiGi as Chief Technology officer.

Since Telenor Pakistan’s inception in 2004, Tore Johnsen has been serving as the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO) and currently has been appointed as the chief executive officer of Telenor’s Thai operation DTAC.

DTAC says 3G unlikely until 2009

  • June 5th, 2008
  • 2:57 pm

Thailand’s second largest cellco by subscribers, DTAC, said yesterday that it will likely have to delay 3G services until 2009 because of regulatory issues. DTAC has formed a loose alliance with CAT Telecom for the development of 3G on its existing 850Mhz frequency, but the cellco is waiting for the state firm’s board to give the green light to the project. ‘We have been waiting a long time for CAT’s board to approve this,’ said DTAC chief commercial officer Thana Thienachariya. ‘We hope we should be able to do it within nine to twelve months after we receive approval from CAT and the regulator.’ He added that he was unable to provide any reasons for CAT’s delay. CAT executives have so far refused to provide any explanation.

   

 

 

 

DTAC goes it alone in 3G race (Thailand)

  • April 29th, 2008
  • 2:49 pm

Thailand’s second largest cellco, GSM operator DTAC, has shelved plans to form a joint venture with state-run CAT Telecom to roll out 3G services, and is instead going it alone in upgrading 2G networks to UMTS standard under a THB5 billion (USD160 million) plan, reports the Bangkok Post. CEO Sigve Brekke said DTAC expected to roll out commercial 3G services in Phuket and Chon Buri by the end of this year, building up to nationwide coverage in 2009. DTAC, a subsidiary of Norway’s Telenor, plans to utilise its legacy 850MHz frequency band to roll out W-CDMA/HSDPA technology enabling mobile internet access at speeds of up to 1Mbps. Brekke said that setting up a 3G partnership with CAT would take more time because it required Cabinet approval. However DTAC still needs approval for the plan from CAT, under its build-transfer-operate (BTO) network operating concession with the state telco, and is set to meet with CAT’s board this week to discuss the matter. The CEO said DTAC had three possible 3G equipment suppliers lined up, and added that his firm recently took over three content providers – Radio Fat Co, Play Sabai Co and Create Co – for a combined THB150 million to help build up a range of downloadable 3G content. Mr Brekke also said that DTAC would not entirely abandon joint-venture plans with CAT and would seek to develop the partnership after the commercial rollout of 3G. ‘We are willing to have CAT as our partner. [the venture] can be formed after the launch,’ he said.

DTAC’s larger GSM rival Advanced Info Service (AIS) appears to have a headstart in the race to launch UMTS, after announcing earlier this month that it would soft launch a 3G network using existing 900MHz spectrum in Chiang Mai by the end of May, and hoped to do the same in Bangkok in June. Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission is yet to issue 2100MHz UMTS licences, but is expected to do so in the second half of this year.

   
 

AIS wants 3G in capital by June (Thailand)

  • April 24th, 2008
  • 2:01 pm

Thailand’s mobile market leader Advanced Info Service (AIS) says it wants to launch commercial 3G services in Chiang Mai next month and in Bangkok in June, reports the Bangkok Post. The firm’s president Wichian Mektrakarn said that the launch of W-CDMA/HSDPA services over a 900MHz network would take place first in Chiang Mai after his company had prepared 30 base stations for a ‘commercial trial’ with state-run telco TOT, the owner of AIS’s build-transfer-operate (BTO) telecoms licence. But he said that AIS was awaiting clarification from the regulator the NTC, expected within 30 days, to determine whether the rollout could encompass a full commercial launch. For the planned Chiang Mai service, Mektrakarn said that users needed to register or replace their existing SIM cards with compatible ones. AIS, together with TOT, has reportedly received permission from the NTC to import 3G/3.5G equipment for an initial launch of 900MHz services, and is in the process of seeking the watchdog’s consent to expand the network to Bangkok. That the strategy was hatched out of frustration at the long delays in issuing 2100MHz UMTS licences in Thailand, which are now hoped for later this year, and the licensing malaise has also led to rival cellco DTAC proposing to partner its BTO network host CAT Telecom in a rollout of 800MHz/850MHz 3G services, using frequencies re-farmed from a legacy analogue network.

   

 

 

DTAC’s EBITDA climbs 6.9%, sales rise 38% (Thailand)

  • February 11th, 2008
  • 1:39 pm

Thailand’s second largest cellco by subscribers DTAC’s EBITDA rose 6.9% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2007 to NOK850 million (USD154 million), on revenues of NOK2.985 billion, up 38% from NOK2.158 billion a year ago. In a report to the Thai and Singapore stock exchanges, the GSM operator, which is 70.6%-owned by Norway’s Telenor, said that CAPEX of NOK717 million during the quarter was up on its 3Q figure of NOK428 million but down from the year-ago investment of NOK737 million. EBIT in 4Q 2007 was NOK326 million, down from NOK410 million a year earlier but marginally above the NOK308 million posted in the third quarter. At the end of December 2007 DTAC had 15.772 million mobile customers, up from 14.878 million at end-September and 11.869 million at the beginning of the year.

   

 

AIS proposes 900MHz 3G (Thailand)

  • January 16th, 2008
  • 7:42 am

Thailand’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers, Advanced Info Services (AIS), has said that it believes it should be allowed to launch 3G services using W-CDMA technology in its existing 900MHz frequency band, without waiting for a specific 3G licence. The GSM operator, and its rivals True Move and DTAC, are still waiting for the authorities to award UMTS licences, now expected sometime in the first half of this year. AIS has earmarked USD600 million for a first phase rollout of a 3G network covering Bangkok and 20 provinces.

   

 

TOT seeks to cut reliance on fixed lines (Thailand)

  • November 12th, 2007
  • 10:17 am

The TOT board said it will invest 64 billion baht ($2 billion) to diversify its core revenue source away from fixed-line telephone service, which is plunging due to the fast-growing broadband business, under a four-year turnaround plan.
The scheme aims to increase the proportion of broadband revenue to 70% of total earnings by 2010, compared with 30% currently.

Colonel Natee Sukolrat, a board director and spokesman, said that the four-year turnaround draft for 2007-2010, which was finished last week, would be submitted for board approval next week.

Under the plan, TOT would spend 16 billion baht ($506 million) annually until 2010 to convert its core fixed-line network to NGN or next generation network technology using 70% of its total investment capital.

The state telecom enterprise forecasts revenues of 50 billion baht ($1.5 billion) -63 billion baht ($1.9 billion) in 2010 when the NGN is complete.

The plan would turn the ailing TOT into a strong competitor after suffering declining earnings from fixed-line services and public telephones, which are its core businesses.

TOT’s revenues have been shrinking ever since two mobile operators, DTAC and True Move, stopped paying network access charges.

The mobile firms stopped making payments last November, claiming that interconnection charges approved by the National Telecommunications Commission took precedence.