Dtac Adds Call Bonus For Its Prepaid Clients

DTAC adds call bonus for its prepaid clients

BANGKOK: -- Total Access Communication (DTAC) yesterday introduced an unprecedented programme that will add a call bonus for prepaid customers when they pick up calls from the same network.

DTAC executives said the move was aimed at maintaining the company’s customer base and showing that DTAC could rely on its own network to keep its competitive edge, unlike its rivals, who are creating synergy among their business groups to enhance their operations.

Under the programme, prepaid customers who use its Krapuk (piggy bank) SIM card will earn Bt1 per minute for calls from people within the same network, regardless of the callers’ SIM cards, to a maximum of Bt10 per call received.

Thana Thienachariya, chief commercial officer for DTAC, said that for most people, 60 per cent of their phone use was for outgoing calls and 40 per cent for incoming calls.

“And most of their outgoing calls each day are to connect with people within the same network,” he said.

He added that the move was in preparation for a possible interconnection charge by the national telecom regulator next year.

The charge would mandate that all telecom operators share revenues from calls between two networks.

The higher the call traffic within the same network, the less telecom operators would pay to different networks.

DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said he was not concerned at all about the synergy power of the company’s rivals.

True Corp Plc, parent company of third-largest mobile-phone operator TA Orange, is making a serious attempt to create a seamless synergy of its businesses.

Besides TA Orange, True businesses include pay-television, fixed-line and Internet services.

Thailand’s largest telecom holding firm, Shin Corp Plc, is also pursuing synergy in its business groups, ranging from mobile-phone operator Advanced Info Service to budget airline Thai AirAsia.

“We’ll be the opposite of the others by focusing only on the wireless business,” said Brekke.

DTAC currently has more than 8 million subscribers.

In a separate matter, in agreement with several telecom firms, Brekke said the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) should award licences for third-generation (3G) mobile phones through a “beauty contest”, meaning those bidders with the most highly feasible 3G business proposals would be awarded the licences.

The NTC is weighing three options for awarding 3G licences: an auction, the beauty-contest idea and a combination of the two methods.

--The Nation 2005-11-10