Broadband Internet: Price-cutting Fails To Spread

[george]

BROADBAND INTERNET: Price-cutting fails to spread

BANGKOK: -- ISPs refuse to follow True's lead in offering budget services, mindful of past wounds to profit margins

Broadband Internet access will probably not get much cheaper this year, much to the disappointment of many surfers, because major ISPs have refused to be drawn into a price war.

While many Internet service providers (ISPs) welcomed the launch of affordable broadband Internet packages by True Corp last week as a stimulus to the entire market, they said they would not follow suit for fear of squeezing their profit margins.

The metropolitan phone company |made a buzz when it unveiled a variety |of high-speed Net plans with one offering downloads at four megabits per second |for a stunningly low flat fee of Bt2,200 a month.

Usually that kind of speed sets a cybernut back more than Bt10,000.

True expects the new packages to double its broadband-user base to 100,000 by the end of the year and has come up with promotions to entice users of older packages to migrate to the new ones.

For example, subscribers to the existing 256kbps plan can move to the relaunched version featuring double the speed and pay only the same old access rate of Bt550 a month.

One broadband subscriber said he had already asked for the promotion and hoped True's initiatives would trigger an all-out price war.

But Anant Kaewruamvongs, deputy managing director of the giant ISP CS Loxinfo, said his company would probably not join in the fray but remain focused on service quality and financial margins.

Unlike True, CS Loxinfo mainly targets the premium segment, he said, adding that if all ISPs raced to bring down rates, the whole industry would collapse.

"Anyway, what True did is a good new choice for the mass market and will expand the entire market," he said.

Internet-industry observers said ISPs had learned a painful lesson during the early days of the industry when they slashed charges to a minimum of Bt5 per hour to grab market share while neglecting to pay attention to their profit margins.

The budget-broadband movement actually kicked off last year when ISPs started selling packages at an average Bt1,000 a month for 256kbps downloads.

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry had prodded providers to drop rates in an attempt to boost the number of users to one million by the end of this year.

Torboon Puangmaha, vice president of another major ISP, KSC Commercial Internet, said KSC also wanted to avoid competing on price.

KSC's cheapest broadband Net package is Bt999 monthly, but coverage is limited to domestic sites.

To view both local and international homepages, users have to fork out Bt1,400 monthly.

-- The Nation 2004-07-05

[somo]

Spam deleted, member warned.

/Admin

Edited July 5, 2004 by george

[Phil Conners]

What a load of bull as always. Uhoh without several hundrede percent markup the market is going to collapse.

How about looking to the rest of the world. Nowhere in the world are prices this high. Only in Thailand. In USA and Europe you get 512k adsl - that actually provides the bandwidth announced - for about 1000 baht/month.

Also, suggesting CS Loxinfo provide a better service than, say, Ji-Net is pure bull. I've used both for years here and the only difference is the 2-3 times higher price of CS Lox.

True Corp, offer your services in Pattaya and I'll take it immediately!

[Firefoxx]

I gotta agree. CSlox gives pretty much the same service as any other decent Thai ISP, which includes Asianet, the ISP providing the low prices. Not to mention that Asianet has more bandwidth by far. Calling itself a premium service is a big fat lie. I remember paying 65,000 baht/month for their leased line service. It wasn't what I would call stellar, nor premium.

When/if CAT loses its monopoly and control over communications, Thailand will hopefully be able to enjoy affordable internet like other countries.

[Upcountry]

I'm confused about all this.

To my great delight, I'm now sufing at 2mbps, via ADSL in Phitsanulok (not on "IT" citg). I thought it would take a year to get here, but here I am, connected for 999B per month (not limited to domestic sites).

It may not be the most dependable service money can by, but so far it seems like 99% uptime.

I realize that the speed will decrease as the number of users in my neighborhood increases, but doesn't this TT&T/CAT thing qualify as affordable high-speed broadband?

If I can get it, most urban dwellers should be able to do so to, right?

Upcountry

[Phil Conners]

Though promised for over a year it is still not available here in suburban Pattaya

[chingy_]

i believe that ToT started the flame, now True join in, even tho other said they won't join this war, just wait until they loose a couple hundred thousand customer, eventually the war will come to them.

tought talk less for them more for true.

[Upcountry]

Well, what started out as pretty fast service has degenerated lately.

Sometimes it's not much better than dialup. Fluctuates wildly. I assume more users have cropped up in my neigborhood.

Frustrations:

1. They don't seem to be in any hurry to increase bandwidth

2. Due to English problems (my fault, truly), I'm having trouble with smtp. If they announce problems to users via their website, I can't really tell.

My smtp connections to outside Thailand are timing out. They told me to use a relay smtp thing in Outlook (which I don't use). It dawned on me that it's a work-around for whatever TTT hinet/CAT his struggling with right now. At first I thought the assumed I had email with hinet!

But I don't trust the proxy possiblities and that's not a good long term solution.

My ISP's in the US either email me ahead of time if they have maintenance issues, etc., or I can communicate with them - again my Thai language problem, since I'm the foreigner.

[astral]

True Corp, offer your services in Pattaya and I'll take it immediately!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They do, and the cost is 1800 baht a month.

Are you still sure you want it??

The office is by the lights at Na Klua, on the Sukhumvit highway.

WebSite

[monty]

They must be silly, 1800/month for 128/64 kbps!

Even the bigger ISP's are cheaper!

cslox 256/128 at 999/month (upcountry, 590/month in Bkk)

Ji-net 256/128 at 1550/month

etc....

Edited January 16, 2005 by monty

[kabal1234]

I think Kaewruamvongs comments are pretty right. Noone needs a price war right now lest slimmer profit margins trigger ever worse service and infrastructure maintenance. Let CS et al handle corporate (which from my experience is pretty good) and others such as True service the home user.

[stumonster]

downloads at four megabits per second

What they are going to let one user have all thailands international bandwidth?

[buadhai]

How about looking to the rest of the world. Nowhere in the world are prices this high. Only in Thailand.  In USA and Europe you get 512k adsl - that actually provides the bandwidth announced - for about 1000 baht/month.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmmm, I'm spending US$60.00 per month here on Saipan for 512/256 from Verizon and consider it a bargain since the price is about one fourth of what it was a year ago.

[chingy_]

back in the state 25buck for road runner(cable internet), beat any dsl line.

[bkk_mike]

How about looking to the rest of the world. Nowhere in the world are prices this high. Only in Thailand.  In USA and Europe you get 512k adsl - that actually provides the bandwidth announced - for about 1000 baht/month.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmmm, I'm spending US$60.00 per month here on Saipan for 512/256 from Verizon and consider it a bargain since the price is about one fourth of what it was a year ago.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm paying about the same for 2560/640 from True. - However that's not the speed I actually get internationally....

And comparing a city of 8m with an island in the Marianas of 70,000, you shouldn't expect to get the same price.

[joka]

I'm still waiting to get adsl here in Pathum Thani, about 5 kilos from the airport. I saw a Csloxinfo ad today, my Thai girlfriend talked with them, and it finally looks like a possibility. Either 599 or 999 for 256/128. Something extraordinary for quicker, i think 3200 for 512/256!

[penzman]

It's not only the price cutting that fails to spread. We're still waiting for hi-speed access in our village which has a few hundred houses, same thing when we lived in the village across the road.

My wife was told that we are more than 5 km away from the central or watchamacallit in Amata Nakorn industrial park.

[Gleen_tea]

CSLOX's statement that they are superior to other ISPs is pure nonsense.

I signed up for their 256/128 adsl. For a while, the service was frequently interrupted and calls to their tech support were a total waste. They would not admit that their network is down, instead it's always "You have a problem with your modem" or "Try reinstalling the modem driver". On one occasion, the tech guy said he would ask the media provider, ADC, to reset my line. A while after someone from ADC called and he told me outright that they're having plenty of problems over at CSLOX and they don't seem to know how to fix it. No, really? One day, the service went down and stayed down for 18 hours. A Thai friend of mine who's using the same service called them to complain and asked them what they're going to do about it. Their response? They sent him a service cancellation form. Well done.

Lately, there have been no interruptions but my guess is it's just a matter of time.

If you're signing up with CSLOX in the belief that you will receive the same (bad) service as you would from any other ISP, then go ahead. If you're signing up in the belief that you will receive premium service, then don't bother.