Thai Cabinet Approves TOT's Nationwide 3G Network Plan

[webfact]

Cabinet okays TOT's 3G project

Information and Communications Technology Minister Chuti Krairikhs said Tuesday that the Cabinet decided to approve TOT's plan to roll out the new and nationwide 3G network on cost of over Bt19.980 billion.

The green light was given due to the temporary delay of the 3G-2.1GHz licence auction of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC),

The Finance Ministry declined to guarantee loans for TOT project. TOT will set up the subsidiary to manage the project and it can also seek partnership, Chuti said.

-- The Nation 2010-09-28

[webfact]

TOT gets green light for Bt19 billion venture for 3G service

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a TOT plan to invest Bt19 billion to set up an affiliate firm to provide and expand 3G services within six months, according to Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Chuti Krairiksh.

Mr Chuti said that TOT Pcl will increase its base stations to 5,400, covering 12-15 provinces and that the new company had targeted to access 50 per cent of existing mobile users.

It also aimed to expand its coverage of high speed internet services, said the minister, adding that the company expected that the services to roll out within six months.

Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court on Sept 23 upheld the Central Administrative Court injunction to suspend distribution of third generation (3G) wireless service, saying the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) was not authorised to award the 3G licences.

The Court reasoned that the NCT's criteria for granting licences on the 2.1 gigahertz frequency spectrum was illegal and that the auction process, if continued, could cause severe damage.

CAT Telecom and TOT earlier this month filed separate complaints against the NTC to block its 3G auction.

TOT launched its own 3G-1.9 gigahertz service in December -- but covering only greater Bangkok -- over its old 2G network, which has been upgraded to 3G. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2010-09-28

[basjke]

There are no 3G licenses but the state agency is allowed to operate their network.Must be that I away from civilized world too long as I forgot that a free ecomomy works this way.

[givenall]

If they run 3G same as their internet, then one more crappy technology for Thailand

[overhaul38]

They must have gotten the split straighten out.

[Thai at Heart]

This really does take the biscuit. What a thumb in the eye for private business. I wonder what this will do to AIS/DTAC stock tomorrow morning. I have heard a lot of people in the oil industry moaning about conducting business with PTT in the market. It seems that "majority-state owned" is the new best company structure in Thailand at the moment.

How did anyone decide that the best outcome would be to let TOT build their own network and keep the private companies out of it. Thailand at the moment has a whiff of UK in the 70's.

[apetley]

So they will cover 12-15 provinces.

What about the other 61-64?

[trogers]

This really does take the biscuit. What a thumb in the eye for private business. I wonder what this will do to AIS/DTAC stock tomorrow morning. I have heard a lot of people in the oil industry moaning about conducting business with PTT in the market. It seems that "majority-state owned" is the new best company structure in Thailand at the moment.

How did anyone decide that the best outcome would be to let TOT build their own network and keep the private companies out of it. Thailand at the moment has a whiff of UK in the 70's.

3G is old tech. We are using 4G via satellite at the moment.

[nikster]

Joke economy.

TOT and CAT privileges need to be removed. That's all. In the previous govt then-Thaksin-owned AIS was benefiting from very favorable contracts with the state companies - go figure. In the current one, TOT and CAT get the goodies. Same game, different faces.

[webfact]

TOT handed 3G bonanza

By USANEE MONGKOLPORN,

SIRIVISH TOOMGUM

THE NATION

The government yesterday quickly approved a nationwide 3G-network roll-out by state-owned TOT, following the court-ordered suspension last week of an auction of third-generation licences.

Private telecom firms, which had earlier planned to bid for new licences from the national telecom regulator, cried foul, suggesting it was unfair competition. Yet, they will have no better choice but to join the state bandwagon via partnerships with TOT.

The TOT project will cost Bt19.98 billion. According to the Cabinet resolution, the Finance Ministry will not guarantee any loan for the project, while TOT will set up a new subsidiary to handle investment in partnership with the private sector. TOT is expected to start the bid to procure the network within three months.

Thana Thienachariya, head of corporate affairs and strategy at Total Access Communication (DTAC), said the TOT move was unfair to other private operators.

TOT got the 3G-2.1GHz licence without bidding. Analysts said it had gained a huge concession fee from private telecom operators and now it is allowed to go ahead with the 3G service nationwide. Private telecom firms still have to wait for 3G licences from either the National Telecommuni-cations Commission (NTC) or its would-be successor, the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission (NBTC).

The now-defunct State Frequency Allocation panel granted the 1,900 MHz spectrum band, of which the 2.1GHz spectrum is a part, to be jointly owned by TOT and CAT in 2000. Subsequently, TOT took over the spectrum rights from CAT to become sole spectrum owner. It now uses the 2.1GHz spectrum to provide the service on its existing Greater Bangkok network.

TrueMove chief Supachai Cheara-vanont said the country should quickly start the 3G-2.1GHz service but the government and NTC had to ensure fairness to private operators as far as roaming and other shared use of the new 3G network were concerned.

Wichien Mektrakarn, chief executive of Advanced Info Service (AIS), said that since the NTC 3G licensing has been delayed, AIS would push its plan to have its maximum 500,000 subscribers roam with TOT's existing 3G network for data service. Both parties had had discussions though a deal was yet to be signed.

AIS would also hold talks with TOT to become its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) on the planned nationwide network, he said.

The MVNO had no network and would lease networks of the major telecom operators to provide the service.

As a TOT concession holder with "good long-term relations", AIS hoped it could take part in helping TOT develop the 3G service in the future. He denied that AIS would be the only one to benefit from the TOT 3G network.

Watchai Vilailuck, president of Samart Corp, said yesterday the company was interested in providing and installing the network for TOT.

ICT Minister Chuti Krairiksh said the roll-out would cover 12 provinces for Greater Bangkok, to reach 50 per cent of total handset users. The Cabinet also told TOT to allow foreign network suppliers without offices in Thailand to bid for the project.

HIGH COST

TOT president Varut Suvakorn said yesterday that TOT would rush to find a consultant to get a loan for the project. He admitted the financial cost would be high because the Finance Ministry had refused to guarantee the loans. He said lenders could be Thai or foreign banks, including Krung Thai Bank, depending on who offered the best terms.

TOT would also rush to seek a consultant to draw up a business plan, including an MVNO plan, and a plan to set up the 3G subsidiary. It would hasten to draw up terms of reference (TOR) to procure the network and present it to the board on October 14.

"All of these things will be completed within three months," he said.

Of the total Bt19.9-billion budget, Bt17.44 billion would be for procuring the network equipment and the rest to pay suppliers for expanding its existing 3G network in Greater Bangkok. Of the total Bt17 billion, Bt15 billion would be raised through bank loans and the rest would come from TOT's cash-flow.

TOT intended to finish the roll-out of 4,772 base stations of the planned 5,320 base stations within 360 days of signing the network procurement and installation contracts.

After the nationwide roll-out was done, TOT would seek partners for the planned 3G subsidiary and it was possible the partners could be the existing telecom operators, Varut said. The network targets 7.4 million subscribers by 2015, when it expects to have an 8-per-cent market share. It expects to break even within seven years.

TOT's existing 3G-2.1GHz network in Greater Bangkok made its debut last December. It has selected five companies to provide 3G services on its network on an MVNO basis. Currently the network has around 140,000 active subscribers.

-- The Nation 2010-09-29

[NCFC]

Boycott it until the service is opened to free and fair competition.

[Thai at Heart]

No funding and no business plan.

Well it's off to a good start then.

[billd766]

AIS, DTAC and True should take out an injunction against TOT for using frequencies that cannot yet be allocated.

Brewstards

[thunder30101]

Does anyone here honestly believe that the service will be any better than what we get from adsl ? Just because it says 3g doesnt mean you will get 3g bandwidth after they oversell their subscriptions and not do any upgrades to their systems, Wireless still has to go through a landline somewhere to go international and cat/tot are not going to spend the money to fix the probem. I cant wait to hear all the complaints in 6 months to a year from now lol when this great scam is up and running, but maybe by then all international sites will be blocked anyway negating the need to fix anything.

[SkyHigh]

So they will cover 12-15 provinces.

What about the other 61-64?

They have to spare that off. So that later they can ask more budget.

NTC version requires telco to achieve 80% coverage. Gov doesnt have to pay a dime.

One might want to ask what the <deleted> is this. Taxpayers's going to lose about 20 billions for crappy service from TOT. They cant even run a stable ADSL.

First, they killed NTC auction. Then they followed with 'all new plan'. Gov suddenly granted more budget for them to spend few days later.

This doesnt need a rocket science to figure out someone is making a big buck out of Thai telecom tragic.

The sadest part is that people still bashing Thaksin as usual, what a moron.

This country is so screwed.

Edited September 29, 2010 by SkyHigh

[Crushdepth]

Ahhh monopoly, the most ancient of all Thai traditions.

Private operators have been completely screwed while the state enterprise gets free reign to screw them for fees.

Disgusting.

[billd766]

To build 4,772 cell sites in any country in 12 months is virtually impossible unless you go out to contract.

You need to find the sites,survey them, acquire them, build and equip them and all the attendant bit and pieces like towers, electricity, equipment needs to be ordered, delivered, installed and integrated and probably a whole new fibre optic backbone running all over the country not to mention extra internet bandwidth.

They will also have to join the queue to obtain the equipment as well which will also cause delays.

And they can do all this in 12 months?

I forgot to mention all of the millions of nuts, bolts washers, cable ties, cable, 1,000s of km of fibre optic cable and the many other parts needed, let alone all the sub contractors, vehicles, fuel, security guards etc.

Yeah, right

I retired last year after 20 years in the mobile phone network after building systems in quite a few countries and to be honest it IS possible, given unlimited funds and manpower.

But reality strikes.

AIS have around 15,000 cell sites and that took over 20 years to build

DTAC has built around 12,000 in the same period.

I would be happy to get back into it but there will be a lot of blame going around when it gets screwed up and the contractors will get it all.

4,772 in 12 months.

I was on a project in Bangladesh a few years ago and Nokia infrastructure couldn't complete 350 in 9 months.

:cheesy: :cheesy:

Edited September 29, 2010 by billd766

[bitterbatter]

If they run 3G same as their internet, then one more crappy technology for Thailand

The 3G will be crappy simply because it relies on the internet. On the brighter side, I have talked to many working in the internet cabling industry and they do plan on a serious upgrade taking affect in 2 years. He said we could expect the common speed for a connect to be 10mB/sec...that would be nice but we will see.

[basjke]

If they run 3G same as their internet, then one more crappy technology for Thailand

The 3G will be crappy simply because it relies on the internet. On the brighter side, I have talked to many working in the internet cabling industry and they do plan on a serious upgrade taking affect in 2 years. He said we could expect the common speed for a connect to be 10mB/sec...that would be nice but we will see.

do ypu mean they gonna change all these in the next 2 years as this will be the only way to improve their service?Keep on dreaming I would say.