www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand’s leading mobile operator, has posted 33.6% year-on-year drop in Q2′09 net income to THB4.2 billion (USD124 million), driven by a weak economy. The operator further reported a 11% drop in Q2′09 revenues to THB25.2 billion from THB28.34 billion in Q2′08.
The drop in demand, according to AIS, prompted it to revise the capital expenditure for 2009 down to THB11 billion from an earlier announced budget of between THB13 billion and THB15 billion, which it said would help it to increase free cash flow by 15% in the year. AIS’ total mobile subscribers grew by 7.5% year-on-year to 27.9 million at June’09-end.
On 08.15.09, In Mobile, By Editor
On 08.13.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Nokia and AIS today announced their collaboration to offer the Nokia Messaging push-email service for AIS subscribers. The deal makes AIS the first operator in Thailand to offer Nokia Messaging, which supports all leading consumer email solutions, such as Ovi Mail, Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail as well as local email service providers.
“Services like Nokia Messaging contribute to easier mobile living for our customers, and we’re happy to be the first to deliver this service in Thailand. We believe our customers will find this service appealing, both in terms of user-friendliness and price,” says Mr. Somchai Lertsutthiwong, Executive Vice President – Marketing, AIS.
“Nokia wants to make mobile email available for as many people as possible, and the agreement with AIS is an important milestone. With Nokia Messaging, we meet people’s need for access to email whenever they want and wherever they want it,” says Mr. Shumit Kapoor, General Manager, Nokia (Thailand) Ltd.
Nokia Messaging is an easy to set-up and easy to use push email service which allows the user to mobilize up to ten personal email accounts on one device. After activating his accounts through a simple set-up process, the user can read, send, smart forward, reply to emails, download, read and attach files directly on their mobile phone. Push email technology ensures fast delivery of email to the mobile phone as soon as the email arrives on the email server. (more…)
On 08.05.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mobile Number Portability regulations have been implemented in Thailand, though it still remains unclear whether the subscribers will be able to port their mobile numbers or not as the operator are still not ready for the service. The operators will have jointly create a central clearing house to facilitate porting within three months. However, the operators have said they will not be able to do this within that time.
AIS, DTAC and TrueMove are set to report to the regulator that they cannot meet the deadline, AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn said. The National Telecommunications Commission, however, reportedly said the operators should have made progress on MNP services some time ago as the regulator discussed the regulations with the operators two years ago.
On 07.22.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The state-run TOT has reportedly asked Advanced Info Service (AIS) to use some of the latter’s 12,000 base stations to quicken its plans to launch 3G mobile services across the country within the next two years. TOT intends to launch 2100MHz W-CDMA/HSDPA-based services across 500 existing GSM base stations of its subsidiary Thai Mobile in the capital at a cost of THB1.7 billion (USD50.6 million), before launching a 3,800 base station network across the country, costing around THB20 billion.
AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said the company was ready to co-operate since it operated under a build-transfer-operate (BTO) concession with TOT, although as AIS had the first right to use its facilities under the BTO agreement, TOT would have to notify the company about any changes in usage.
A TOT director acknowledged that AIS’s base stations at some sites could not be adapted for 3G because some equipment and antennae were too heavy for the structures.
On 07.17.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has reportedly given consent over the regulations for introducing mobile number portability (MNP) in the country, which will take effect in August.
Mobile operators must comply with customer requests to move their existing number to another network within three months of the regulation’s publication, said NTC commissioner Sudharm Yoonaidharma, whereas the fee for porting a number must not exceed the retail cost of a pre-paid SIM card (which can be bought for as low as THB50 [USD1.50]), although whether any such charge would actually be levied is dependent on an agreement between operators which will be submitted to the NTC for its consideration, he added.
As it was earlier reported, Thailand’s cellcos said that it was impossible to implement MNP in three months, citing market leader AIS that necessary preparations could take anything up to year .
On 07.08.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Thailand’s private mobile operators have reportedly warned that it will be impossible to implement mobile number portability (MNP) in the three-month period proposed by the regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
Tore Johnsen, CEO of Digital Total Access Communication (DTAC), said it was impossible to upgrade network and customer support systems, establish a clearinghouse, test all systems and carry out staff training in the given timeframe.
Wichian Mektrakarn, President of Advanced Info Service (AIS), said that at least ten months was needed to buy the relevant equipment and upgrade the network software, and added that it would be preferable for the NTC to use a previous MNP regulatory draft, which gave cellular operators a year to complete the implementation. AIS is anticipated to spend USD10 million on the equipment and software upgrade, with additional investment going towards the central clearinghouse.
On 06.12.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: AIS, the Thai mobile operator, has launched the RIM’s BlackBerry Storm handset and new BlackBerry tariff plans for its subscribers. The BlackBerry Storm smartphone features a ‘clickable’ touch screen, HSPA network support, web browsing and push e-mail, GPS and multimedia capabilities including a 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, a media player and an expandable memory card slot. The Blackberry Storm can also be synchronised with iTunes and with the Blackberry Music Gateway, which allows users to play music through their home stereo.
AIS introduced a postpaid BlackBerry plan for THB 850 per month, a prepaid package for THB 40 per day and a roamer package for foreigners travelling to Thailand for THB 500 for three days or THB 900 for seven days. These plans are for the subscribers who use the BlackBerry Internet Service, for Enterprise Server users AIS has separate plans. AIS will sell the BlackBerry Storm for THB 29,900.
On 06.05.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: AIS, the Thai mobile operator has halted its expansion plans for 3G network as it awaits official licensing. To avoid congestion on the network, AIS has stopped the expansion of its 3G network and will wait for the NTC to issue 3G licences in the 2.1GHz band. In 2008, AIS had launched its 3G services and at present has 83 3G base stations in Chiang Mai, 22 in Chon Buri and 2 in Bangkok. The operator has made an investment of THB 60 million in the 3G network.
The issuance of 3G licence is due this year.
On 06.03.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFedertion.com/news: The country’s privately-owned GSM network operators, AIS, DTAC and True have reportedly said that they are interested in providing retail 3G services over its planned nationwide UMTS network. The parties have begun to negotiate rental rates for a possible plan under which TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand) would lease the private companies’ base station locations to install its 2100MHz 3G network equipment. TOT intends to begin the 3G wholesale service in 2009 after an initial rollout involving upgrading its GSM subsidiary Thai Mobile’s existing 1900MHz network.
On 04.29.09, In Mobile, By Editor
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Advanced Info Service, AIS, Thailand’s leading mobile operator by subscribers, intends to cut costs by THB2 billion in 2009, up from last years amount of THB1.5 billion, driven by downfall in the economy. All department of the operator will be aiming at cost reduction, but the measures will not affect the subscribers, the president claimed.
DTAC, the competitor of AIS, has also implemented a cost-efficiency programme, aiming cost savings of THB5 billion in the two-year period 2009/10.