Dtac Failure To Bring Heavy Fine

[webfact]

COMMUNICATION

DTAC failure to bring heavy fine

USANEE MONGKOLPORN

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Total Access Communications (DTAC) experienced another network failure yesterday, which could draw it a heavy penalty.

"We will definitely slap a fine on DTAC because this is the fifth network failure in the past year.

"The fine can be in the eight digits or about Bt20 million to Bt30 million," said Takorn Tantasit, secretary-|general of the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission (NBTC).

The watchdog will set up a committee to set the exact fine within four days, he said. The DTAC network has gone down many times. If the watchdog declines to take any strong measure, this will affect its image. It will take a harsher action to punish the carrier if its network crashes again, Takorn said.

He said he believed this fine should be based on Bt1 per number and the 130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand, since the network failure yesterday also inconvenienced customers of other networks, who could not contact DTAC's customers.

The regulator will cite Article 33 of the Telecom Business Law, which requires cellular operators to maintain network quality or face a fine of Bt20,000 per day. DTAC has the right to appeal the fine.

The second-largest cellular operator has some 24 million subscribers.

The NBTC summoned DTAC executives for an urgent meeting after the problem occurred.

DTAC said in a statement that one of the several pairs of MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) signalling routers at the Rangsit Switching Centre had developed a fault, resulting in combined downtime of 65 minutes around noon. The mishap affected about 20 per cent of customers in various parts of the country.

"The fault has been fixed and service has now returned to normal. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused," it said.

After many network failures, the NBTC issued an order to DTAC on May 28 to prevent more breakdowns. The company appealed against the order, but the NBTC's telecom committee declined to accept the appeal.

Last December 21, DTAC experienced a network fault that was the result of a critical migration of data from one database to another. On January 5, it experienced another network fault that affected many customers in the southern provinces, who were affected by yet another incident three days later.

On May 4, DTAC's main fibre-optic trunk in the upper North and a backup line failed, disrupting communication services to many subscribers in the area.

-- The Nation 2012-08-29

[KKvampire]

and what about some sort of compensation for customers who had many hours outage? Or the same story in Thailand ,, Customer service doesnt matter and no legal redress

[Nowhereman60]

In the long run the DTAC customer pays any fine. Either in hidden charges, increase in cost per minute, reduced free minutes, there are hundreds of ways they do it without you even knowing it. And where does all the fine money goes to? Who's pockets?

Edited August 28, 2012 by Nowhereman60

[Keesters]

And what about any failures of NBTC. Who fines them?

[TheFishman1]

The customer will end up paying this with additional charges,triple down effect

[jshorts]

The customer will end up paying this with additional charges,triple down effect

Can triple trickle?

[Sydebolle]

What happens with the fine? Do Thailands finest line things again?

[bobl]

During this "outage", I actually used DTAC (obviously I was one of the unaffected 80%?) to call Truemove's customer care to complain that they (Truemove-H) were down AGAIN. Can you say irony?

For the past 2 weeks - actually 16 days now - my local cell tower has been going up and down like a bargirl's panties. I've lost count of the number of times it's been down. True have 3 responses. 1) There's no problem, everything is fine. 2) Maybe CAT have a problem. 3) It must be your phone.

My phone (and True-H/CAT) works just fine if I move out of this area so obviously, the problem is local to my nearest tower - but now after 11 phone calls and 16 days they haven't fixed it. Meanwhile my Blackberry is still truckin' along on DTAC.

I wonder, could NBTC's hatred of DTAC perhaps be politically motivated?

As for the tinfoil hat brigade - the proposed "fine" is Bt ONE per subscriber. Period. A one-off payment. Not per month. Not per minute. Per subscriber. Do you really believe that DTAC will try to recover this B1 from you? You really are clueless about the economics of telecoms and how much they're ALREADY making off you.

This is nothing more than NBTC trying to score a quick $1million off an easy target.

[belg]

"130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand"

???

that is twice the population of thailand

good journalism

[Scott]

I know people who have two or three phones. Where I work, all of the admin have a phone and number supplied by the employer for work-related calls. All of them also have a personal phone.

[bkkjames]

"130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand"

???

that is twice the population of thailand

good journalism

do the math. 1 for work, 1 for wife to call. 1 for mia noi, 1 for gig.

[Pseudolus]

During this "outage", I actually used DTAC (obviously I was one of the unaffected 80%?) to call Truemove's customer care to complain that they (Truemove-H) were down AGAIN. Can you say irony?

For the past 2 weeks - actually 16 days now - my local cell tower has been going up and down like a bargirl's panties. I've lost count of the number of times it's been down. True have 3 responses. 1) There's no problem, everything is fine. 2) Maybe CAT have a problem. 3) It must be your phone.

My phone (and True-H/CAT) works just fine if I move out of this area so obviously, the problem is local to my nearest tower - but now after 11 phone calls and 16 days they haven't fixed it. Meanwhile my Blackberry is still truckin' along on DTAC.

I wonder, could NBTC's hatred of DTAC perhaps be politically motivated?

As for the tinfoil hat brigade - the proposed "fine" is Bt ONE per subscriber. Period. A one-off payment. Not per month. Not per minute. Per subscriber. Do you really believe that DTAC will try to recover this B1 from you? You really are clueless about the economics of telecoms and how much they're ALREADY making off you.

This is nothing more than NBTC trying to score a quick $1million off an easy target.

The DTAC response to the other half that is was nothing to do with them, and it was her phone almost cost her dear. Having been told that the reason the internet was not working where as her phone was, was the fault of the handset she went looking for a new phone. Luckily I met her for a coffee and played around with the handset resetting the APN and it pinged back into life. I wonder what the response would have been at DTAC with a angry Farang standing there saying that is was their denial, deviation, and failure to own up to their faulty system that meant she bought a new phone when there was nothing wrong with the existing one? My guess would be "so sorry sorry. Would you like to upgrade to a new service?".

Edited August 29, 2012 by Pseudolus

[bobl]

"130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand"???

Off the top of my head I count 6 sim cards (all active to varying degrees) near me as I type. So that's 2 users, 6 sim cards.

[Sateev]

"130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand"

???

that is twice the population of thailand

good journalism

do the math. 1 for work, 1 for wife to call. 1 for mia noi, 1 for gig.

You and the moderator need to learn to read English: it doesn't say 130 million PHONES it says, "the 130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand", which is clearly ridiculous.

Again, fabulous journalism...

[webfact]

Source: http://dtac.co.th

DTAC call center: 1678

(without *)

[tragickingdom]

Real sources say that the fine in the 6 maximum 7 digits per full day is. That is a few thousand dollars at the most. Telco's laugh about those kind of fines. In the meantime Thailand is still in the dark ages. Whereas Cambodia has a full working 3 G system and the world is moving to 4G Thailand is only offering some sort of 3G service in city centers. It is highly possible that the Mobile operators do not want to invest in a system upgrade because of the incompetent Thai bureaucrats who make everything overcomplicated and drag their feet for decades.

[jcw]

Thailand's attempt at 3G is nothing more than a sick sour pathetic joke, 10 points to Cambodia though.

[jcw]

"130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand"???

Off the top of my head I count 6 sim cards (all active to varying degrees) near me as I type. So that's 2 users, 6 sim cards.

To keep track of your woman?

Just joking

[Pseudolus]

Source: http://dtac.co.th

DTAC call center: 1678

(without *)

"Sorry, we have many people interested in our service. Please try again later"

nice - stiff you all the way these clowns do. Bet the call costs 100 baht a time as well.

[rheinwiese]

Source: http://dtac.co.th

DTAC call center: 1678

(without *)

"Sorry, we have many people interested in our service. Please try again later"

nice - stiff you all the way these clowns do. Bet the call costs 100 baht a time as well.

Same here.

[pxlgirl]

What a joke! you pay (by dialing the number) to get a free package... right.

[animatic]

Heavy fine that can not but be included in the customers bill, so again the little guy gets to finance the government with yet another hidden tax while ministry weenies try and pretend they are tough dealers for the public welfare.

[Thai at Heart]

"130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand"

???

that is twice the population of thailand

good journalism

do the math. 1 for work, 1 for wife to call. 1 for mia noi, 1 for gig.

You and the moderator need to learn to read English: it doesn't say 130 million PHONES it says, "the 130 million mobile-phone users in Thailand", which is clearly ridiculous.

Again, fabulous journalism...

Can one deduce that the tourism numbers are looking fantastic?

[Nowhereman60]

Source: http://dtac.co.th

DTAC call center: 1678

(without *)

"Sorry, we have many people interested in our service. Please try again later"

nice - stiff you all the way these clowns do. Bet the call costs 100 baht a time as well.

Same here.

Same here 7 am everyone calling right now.

[David006]

fines? what about automatic credit to users....naaa guess they can't get their sticky fingers on that.

Be nice if the <deleted> PEA were forced to credit customers for the bloody outages and fined for every dangerous bit of infrastructure....

rant over...

[KhunMichael]

Source: http://dtac.co.th

DTAC call center: 1678

(without *)

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA.......

Just called this number every 20 minutes. Automatic answer:... "Sorry, we have many interests in after this. Please try again later." (What a nice english....) I bet this automatic answer will last until end of applying time (31st August, 2012).

By the way...., I've checked it. It's free of charge.... (at least).

Edited August 30, 2012 by KhunMichael

[snowgard]

"The fine can be in the eight digits or about Bt20 million to Bt30 million," said Takorn Tantasit, secretary-|general of the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission (NBTC).

I never read something about a fine for TOT Internet problems!!! This were very welcome!!!

[lomatopo]

In the long run the DTAC customer pays any fine. Either in hidden charges, increase in cost per minute, reduced free minutes, there are hundreds of ways they do it without you even knowing it. And where does all the fine money goes to? Who's pockets?

Not sure if you want to be exposed to a different point of view? In theory DTAC customers already paid in the form of a service outage. There are no hidden charges, unless you include rounding up, costs/minute are controlled by your plan/promotion but the NBTC has decreed that DTAC and AIS must cap voice rates at 1 baht/min by year's end. Not sure what to say about "reduced free minutes" - any bonus minutes are a result of promotions and top-ups, which I guess could be curtailed, or the "hundreds of other ways" as you fail to detail any.

From Bualang Securities roadshow:

Fifth network outage on Aug 28: DTAC was subjected to another major service disruption on Aug 28, its fifth since Dec 2011. According to a company press release, MPLS Signaling Routers at a switching center in Rangsit malfunctioned, taking down the network in various parts of Thailand for more than an hour during the middle of the day. It apparently directly affected about 20% of the firm's subscribers. We assume that DTAC will compensate affected subscribers by giving two days free calls. Applying the two-day compensation and the 20% negative impact on its total subscribers, we estimate a revenue loss of around Bt50m. Together with the NBTC's estimated fines of Bt30m, total damages are estimated at roughly Bt80m, which will impact the 3Q12 bottom-line by about 2.7%, an insignificant financial impact.

[watcharacters]

In the USA it's no longer possible to lodge a class action suit against a mobile phone provider. Only individual suits can be made.

[watcharacters]

I no longer get 3g where I am. I had it for months but now I'm told I'm outside their coverage area.