TOT Looks To IPTV By June Despite Doubts

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TOT looks to IPTV by June despite doubts

Watchiranont Thongtep

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- While TOT hopes IPTV (Internet-protocol television) will be its new value-added service, management still doubts whether the project will be able to get off the ground soon.

The state telecom agency joined with IPTV service provider Cubic Associates Group (Thailand) to demonstrate the technology yesterday. TOT board chairman Panthep Chamrasromran said the two were in talks on details of a possible partnership. If the deal is done, the service may be launched commercially in June.

The service would target TOT's 109,000 broadband Internet subscribers who have signed up for a connection speed over 10 megabits per second. In total, TOT has more than a million broadband Internet users.

Customers using the IPTV service would need to buy a set-top box to access the programmes but there would be no monthly fee. Panthep said TOT aimed to sell 35,000 set-top boxes a month.

However, a high-ranking TOT executive source said management was not certain the project could get off the ground soon, given that some details might not be easily finalised.

First, Cubic has proposed that TOT put forward a bank guarantee of Bt150 million to procure the first lot of 30,000 set-top boxes, each of which costs Bt5,000. Then TOT would sell the boxes for Bt5,555 each to woo customers to the service. An instalment plan of 10 monthly payments of Bt555 would be offered.

"TOT is concerned that if it fails to sell all 30,000 boxes, it will lose the bank guarantee to the company," the source said.

Moreover, TOT is still waiting to see what content Cubic would broadcast on the IPTV channels under this partnership. In addition, they have yet to finalise a marketing plan on how to compete with cable and satellite TV operators, the source said.

Supersak na Nakhonphamom, chief executive officer of Cubic Associates Group (Thailand), said the company expected to offer 150 IPTV channels on TOT's network. In the first phase, 70 per cent of the programmes would be free content, while the rest would be pay-per-view and video-on-demand service. The next step would include interactive services such as travel- and movie-ticket booking, and home delivery via set-top box.

-- The Nation 2012-02-25

[thunder30101]

Oh yes just what we need iptv eating up what little bandwidth capacity thailands antiquated telecom system has. Cant wait for dialup speeds on my internet when this is implemented.

[nikster]

LOOOOL yeah no way...

Wishful thinking of TOT management, who put it on the brochure for TOT Fiber... but apparently without telling the techs about it, or hiring anybody knowing anything about TV or iPTV.... classic TOT thai-government-monopoly style.

I got TOT fiber installed and noticed that it said something about IPTV. So I asked about it... "no have"..

No worries about international bandwidth - if they actually were to offer IPTV it would only use inside-Thailand bandwidth, which is plentiful. But this is TOT. I am willing to bet nothing will happen for another few years...

[Pib]

I am willing to bet nothing will happen for another few years...

Concur.

[ma91c1an]

True had an IPTV service for a couple of years.

They suddenly decided to cancel it with minimal notice. It was a major pain the ass to get them to send a technician out to retrieve their set top box. They were supposed to compensate me for it, but of course they never did.

I lacked the motivation to find the original lease agreement. I seem to remember paying a deposit, and a monthly fee for the box.

I preferred TrueIPTV to TrueVisions. No loss of signal during rain storms.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Odds and ends....

Recall, I posted recently in one of the TOT Fiber 2 Home threads about inquiring of TOT re that service in central BKK/lower Sukhumvit, and being told it was still "months" away from being available.

Separately, recall that MCOT has announced an IPTV package called VING... Their website seems to have been fleshed out some since last I looked, and I now see pricing and packages.... But I've never heard or seen a peep about this outside of a few ThaiVisa threads.

http://www.vingworld.co.th/promotion/

[Pib]

It's one thing to build & operate an internet capability where the customer creates his own content by choosing what sites he surfs to, downloads from, does his social networking on to build & operate a service with content the operator must generate/keep interesting like TV shows. Getting into any type of media broadcasting on a large scale basis can be very expensive and risky with all the competition currently in place with the various cable and satellite capabilities, especially with all the free-to-air channels available via C band (big dish) satellite TV...heck, even free-to-air channels are growing in number on KU-band (small dish) satellite TV.