Jasmine Internet Plans To Be Back On Track Soon

[george]

Jasmine plans to be back on track soon

BANGKOK: -- Jasmine International's broadband business has hit several stumbling blocks over the past two months, due mostly to its conflicts with TT&T, but it believes it will be back on track soon, CEO Pete Bodharamik said yesterday.

Jasmine owns more than 24 per cent of TT&T, which provides fixed telephone lines in the provinces.

Pete said Jasmine's broadband Internet service provider Triple T Broadband had leased TT&T's network facilities and paid 20 per cent of its broadband revenue to the agency as part of the network leasing fees.

However, both companies have been at odds recently because TT&T creditors are reportedly accusing Triple T of allegedly moving some of TT&T's assets and luring its employees away.

The wrangling has been affecting the technical collaboration related to Triple T's usage of TT&T for service expansion, which makes it difficult for Triple T to move fast enough to woo new customers.

Pete said that Triple T was working to solve the problem by investing about Bt1.5 billion on setting up its own broadband network connection nodes nationwide, instead of just relying on TT&T's facilities to enable its rapid expansion.

He added that the installation of nodes should be completed in the next month or two.

Jasmine Group is targeting revenue of around Bt10 billion next year, of which Bt5 billion should be contributed by broadband service.

Jasmine Telecom Systems, which provides turnkey telecom services and solutions, already has a backlog of 2010 contracts worth Bt2 billion.

This year the Jasmine Group targets about Bt8 billion in revenue, of which around Bt5.36 billion was earned in the first nine months. It expects net profit of about Bt700 million.

Pete said Triple T would soon launch faster broadband connection services and more broadband content to boost demand.

One new item of content is a video-on-demand South Korean movie channel, which will cost Bt199 per month for unlimited viewing.

Pete said Triple T was trying to achieve its goal of more than 1 million subscribers next year, up from about 570,000 projected for this year and 300,000 achieved last year.

He hopes P Planner, which is TT&T's rehabilitation planner, will speak with all TT&T shareholders, including Jasmine, to jointly plan TT&T's future.

-- The Nation 2009-12-04

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[Phil Conners]

> One new item of content is a video-on-demand South Korean movie channel, which will cost Bt199 per month for unlimited viewing.

One South Korean movie channel for 199B/month. Where do I sign up. Not.