True Ready For Surge In Wifi Usage

[george]

True ready for surge in WiFi usage

Market leader aiming to have 400 hotspots

BANGKOK: -- To cash in on the expected doubling in the number of wireless high-speed Internet users this year, True Corporation is gearing up to widen its WiFi coverage, with the aim of having at least 400 hotspots by the end of this year.

Local communications companies want to expand their reach and revenues among an estimated 500,000 owners of WiFi-capable laptop computers. True says it currently has 10,000 customers or an 80% market share among regular WiFi users.

Noppadol Dej-Udom, director and general manager for broadband and Internet, said the company was focusing on high-potential locations in Bangkok and major provinces.

True has been rapidly expanding the number of its WiFi hotspots, from around 100 at the start of the year to 300 at present and an expected 400 by year-end. The hotspots offer high connection speeds of up to 4 Megabits per second.

''The move is intended to accelerate demand for wireless connectivity among existing laptop users,'' he said, adding that True expected to double the size of its WiFi customer base to 20,000 by the end of this year.

As well, the company expects to have 400,000 broadband Internet subscribers at the end of the year, out of a projected total of 450,000.

Mr Noppadol said Thailand could expect rapid growth in the WiFi market, noting that Korea now had 300,000 WiFi hotspots that generated six billion baht in revenue in the first nine months of this year.

Although True earned only a few million baht from WiFi, he said the business had grown significantly since last year.

Yesterday the company signed an agreement with The Mall Group to create eight WiFi hotspots at the latter's department stores, seven in Bangkok and the other in Nakhon Ratchasima.

True also has hotspots at most outlets of the Au Bon Pain restaurant chain while its main WiFi rival, Internet KSC, has an exclusive arrangement with Starbucks coffee shops. Shin Satellite's CS Loxinfo is also active in the sector.

Owners of Wi-Fi-capable notebooks can wirelessly connect to the system by purchasing a True WiFi prepaid card, which costs 180 baht per hour or 600 baht for five hours. Existing True Broadband customers can obtain unlimited WiFi access for 500 baht per month.

As well, the company recently introduced a ''Mobile Money Cash Card'' programme that offers five packages, ranging from 50 baht for 30 minutes to 1,000 baht for 1,500 minutes.

--Bangkok Post 2005-10-05

[Crushdepth]

The hotspots offer high connection speeds of up to 4 Megabits per second.

Let me be the first to say that this is a load of <deleted>.

What they mean is 'up to 4 megabits per second to the True network', ie. within Thailand. Those of us with True ADSL well know how little international bandwidth True has access to. You can expect speeds more in the range of 50-200KB / second.

[raggedjagged]

Ridiculous prices, IMO.

[melus]

Who in their right mind is going to pay 180 baht an hour to connect at speeds probably not much faster than dial-up on international sites? Is it greed or what that drives True?

[Guest endure]

The hotspots offer high connection speeds of up to 4 Megabits per second.

Let me be the first to say that this is a load of <deleted>.

What they mean is 'up to 4 megabits per second to the True network',

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And also up to 4 megabits per second shared between all the users logged onto that particular hotspot.

[monty]

Who in their right minds would want to pay for hotspot access, especially at those prices!

At the moment there are over 30 places in Bangkok offering free hotspot access, some of them probably a lot faster by virtue of not using the True network but another ISP!

The other tourist places are slowly following suit with hotspots popping up.

I guess Starbucks will follow suit shortly with making access free (if they can get under KSC's contract), since there are two of them already offering the free access!

A good source for finding them:

http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/wifi.htm