Wireless Federation

True Move, Thailand, plans to invest strongly in 3G mobile broadband to be launched Q2′09. According to the operator it wouldn’t cut down on the investment in its 3G networks development.
“We will be pinning our hopes on 3G mobile service as we see it as a great business opportunity to enhance our business model in convergence,” says CEO True Move, Supachai Chearavanont.
According to Supachai, the telco will maintain its targets for the number of new subscribers of between three to five million this year, and that the amount of investment in 2009 would be about the same as in 2008.

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True Corp, Thailand denies the speculation doing rounds regarding it’s partnership with China Mobile which gave a sharp rise in it’s share price.
“The company would like to clarify that the rumours are purely speculation and that there is no truth in this matter,” True said in a statement.
True Corp’s shares rose by nearly 30%, with the rumours coming in. The rumours being that China Mobile, the world’s largest telecoms operator, and few other foriegn operators are keen to buy a stake in True group were circulated in the Thai marketbut were denied by the Thai operator.
True Move, Thailand’s third largest operator, also denies the buy back of it’s US bonds at a discounted price.

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DTAC in the 3G race, reportedly, raises the planned number of 3G base transceiver stations from 1,200 to 2,800. DTAC presently hold a permission of rolling out 1200 UMTS BTSs, from NTC. It initially is using it’s 850MHz frequencies in Bangkok, Chon Buri and Phuket at an estimated cost of THB5 billion (USD150 million) and plans to double this budget.
According to DTAC CEO Tore Johnsen, one of three suppliers, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies, will be chosen as its main 3G equipment partner.
AIS has lately increased the planned size of it’s UMTS-900 network from 400 BTSs to 1,900, costing around THB6 billion; AIS subscribers in Bangkok expect commercial 3G services by the year end. All it awaits is the regulatory permission in order to deploy the additional 1,500 BTSs.
Thailand’s third operator, True Move, has planned a  roll out of least 600 3G BTSs using 800MHz-850MHz spectrum, at a cost of over THB1 billion.

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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.

Thailand’s telecoms regulator has announced that it would permit the top three mobile phone operators to import equipment for third-generation mobile services.

The top three operators Advanced Info Service (AIS), second-ranked Total Access Communication PCL (TAC), and number three True Move.

NTC secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn announced, AIS will invest 1.29 billion baht ($38 million) to upgrade base stations, while TAC will invest around 5 billion baht.

TAC is planning to  launch the 3G service on its existing 850 MHz frequency in Bangkok and major cities by end of 2008.

The Thai operators are keen on expanding their technologies and recieving new licences on a new 2.1 GHz spectrum.

Suranan has announced that the regulator will issue 3G licences by early 2009.

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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.

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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.

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True Move, the country’s third-largest mobile operator, is pinning hopes on its emerging non-voice services as it expected its financial status to become positive by the end of this year.

Suphakit Vuntanadit, director of marketing and customer experience relationship management of True, said True Move was expected to break even within this year, helped by increasing non-voice earnings.

True Move reported 8.737 billion baht ($253 million) in revenue in the second quarter of this year, up 75.6% year-on-year. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose by 105.5%, thanks to a new revenue stream from interconnection charges.

But it posted a loss of 400 million baht during the period. The company had 953,000 net new customers during the period, bringing its total subscribers to 9.1 million baht ($264,000).

Suphakit attributed the improvement in revenue to a sharp increase in non-voice and value-added revenues, which surged by 35.5% to 635 million baht ($18.4 million).

He also said that the key factors to the growth included its lifestyle marketing strategy, convergence services, and network quality, which now covered 92% of the country.

True Move plans to spend an additional 2.5 billion baht ($72.7 million) this year to expand its network capacity and signal quality.

Suphakit said he expected to see between 12 million and 13 million new customers this year, up from five million forecast earlier thanks to the unexpectedly high increase in new customer numbers in the first half.

Thailand’s mobile-phone market in the first half of this year drew seven million new customers, bringing the nationwide total close to 47 million.

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The Thai regulator NTC has ordered communications provider TOT to begin negotiating interconnection charges with mobile operator DTAC or risk penalties, the Bangkok Post writes. TOT missed the 5 July deadline for beginning negotiations. The ongoing dispute concerns a new interconnection scheme which replaces the old access charge scheme. Mobile operators DTAC and TrueMove have already stopped paying access charges under the new interconnection scheme. The state enterprise is refusing to adopt the new system as it believes it will receive less money from access charges.

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The operating contracts of all private mobile phone network providers in Thailand have been ruled illegal under a decision by the Council of State which stated that changes made to concessions between private operators and state-owned TOT and CAT Telecom had failed to meet requirements under the 1992 joint public-private investment law. However, ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom stressed that services will not be interrupted even though all contracts must be renegotiated from scratch, which he said could be completed before the military-backed interim government is scheduled to hold elections – expected by October. The decision was expected by GSM cellcos AIS, DTAC and True Move, which offer services under build-transfer-operate (BTO) concessions, and private-public joint venture Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia – as the regime had already declared the contracts illegal before asking the Council of State for a ruling. There will be no move to freeze or cancel the concessions, in order to avoid disruption to services, Dr Sitthichai claimed, although the ruling technically allows it. The ruling leaves open the possibility that recent amendments, which included changes in revenue-sharing terms and concession lifespans, could be made void. The Minister called on the operators to enter into talks on restructuring their contracts to create a level playing field under a single, unified framework. Sitthichai said he expected the negotiations between the two state enterprises and private operators to take around 90 days, after which the cabinet would review the proposals. ‘We expect the entire process to be completed within 180 days,’ he said, adding that: ‘It’s my dream that all concession contracts be made the same. In reality of course, that might not be the case. But at least, each player will pay 30% in revenue sharing [to network hosts TOT or CAT].’ He went on to say that he would propose that authorities move forward with converting existing concession contracts altogether to truly create a competitive landscape, where concessions are scrapped in favour of new licensing agreements. DTAC and True Move, which operate under CAT Telecom concessions, pay the state enterprise 25% of their revenue, a sum that will increase to 30% from 2011, whilst AIS, which operates under a TOT contract, pays 20% of its pre-paid service revenues. Commenting on the upcoming negotiations, DTAC has suggested that AIS’s pre-paid rates be increased to 25% now and 30% in 2011 to bring them to comparable levels.

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