No Excuses Now For A Cut-Price 3G Service: Thai Editorial

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

No excuses now for a cut-price 3G service

The Nation

The 'big three' operators bid low and won big, now they must pass on the benefits to the consumer

BANGKOK: -- The country's auction of 3G spectrum slots has finally come to an end, though questions of whether the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) was over-generous in its terms for the three bidders are buzzing louder than ever. The end result of the auction, a combined bid of Bt41.65 billion for the nine slots, was just slightly higher than the reserve price of Bt40.5 billion.

But despite the questions surrounding the auction, most consumers have welcomed the news. Thailand has suffered a long delay in the launch of third-generation Internet. Our neighbours in the region have been able to enjoy its benefits for some time. Malaysians have been using 3G since 2004, Vietnamese since 2009 and Bruneians since 2005, while Singapore is on the brink of launching a 4G network.

The introduction of the advanced network will bring real benefits for Thailand in a world increasingly connected by the Internet. For instance, business transactions will become more convenient because 3G technology offers greater and more efficient access to banking solutions. It will boost interactive mobile communication, and also extend the reach of healthcare by providing more services to people in rural areas of the country. Clinics in remote locations will be able to wirelessly communicate with a network of modern healthcare facilities to provide their patients with a higher standard of care.

The "big three" telecoms operators were quick to pounce on the available 3G slots, knowing that the universal appeal and benefits of the service meant big profits for its providers. In other countries, telecoms companies have engaged in furious bidding battles to win a share of the 3G bounty.

In Thailand, however, the rights for 3G technology attracted little in the way of competitive bidding. The outcome of the bidding process had been a foregone conclusion ever since its terms and details were announced. The country's "big three" operators duly shared the spoils among themselves after the NBTC announced it would hand each winner a maximum of three slots in the spectrum. The "lucky" winners were Advanced Info Service's Advanced Wireless Network, Total Access Communication's DTAC Network, and True Corp's Real Future.

Now that the auction is over, the NBTC faces the challenge of ensuring that the best interests of 3G consumers are met. The telecoms regulator said it deliberately chose a low reserve price so that the 3G service providers would not have to pass the cost of high bids on to consumers. Thus the NBTC's main task is to make sure that 3G operators do not take advantage of their customers or the government.

Its second task is to ensure that 3G Internet is extended right across the country, as promised. The operators have no excuse for providing a low-quality service for those that live outside the big cities. The three companies in question have benefited from low bidding fees, and they now have a duty to invest the resulting windfall into providing the best possible service for consumers.

The public, impatient to enjoy the overdue benefits of third-generation Internet, may be willing to turn a blind eye to the controversy surrounding the bidding price. But it will not tolerate companies failing to honour their promises to provide wide-ranging service at a fair price.

The advent of this new technology has the potential to bridge the digital divide between sections of society and support development that will upgrade the living conditions of people.

There is absolutely no doubt that the operators will make vast profits from this new technology. But they should be aware of the obligation that they have to its consumers. The NBTC must also play its part in ensuring that customers get the fair deal they have been promised.

-- The Nation 2012-10-19

[David006]

The advent of this new technology has the potential to bridge the digital divide between sections of society and support development that will upgrade the living conditions of people.

????

Wonder what that means? Although I would think that Thailand has one of the most inexpensive tariffs in the world...how does bandwidth put rice in the bowl? Same same computerized vehicles equals road safety no doubt.....

[MaxLee]

But wait, ..... if something goes wrong again in the finalization process we will have to wait another 10 years, in order to get another finalization procedure which will take another 10 years while the rest of the world enjoys 7G already by the time the telecommunication operators will delay it another 10 years.... .... Because Thailand is gonna waste another 30 years until they acquire 3.000001G AT BEST

Edited October 19, 2012 by MaxLee

[asiawatcher]

All this rhetoric and justification, supposition, assumption, ... what a croc. There will only be three primary beneficiaries of this outdated technology from this scam being justified in the media as some super digital essential tech. It's all about the money...

[MaxLee]

All this rhetoric and justification, supposition, assumption, ... what a croc. There will only be three primary beneficiaries of this outdated technology from this scam being justified in the media as some super digital essential tech. It's all about the money...

I second that. And until now the telecommunication broadband infrastructure hasn't really been improved over the last decades until now, so in other words, what Thailand is doing is:

They run a old "new technology" which has been "outdated for years", in a telecommunication broadband infrastructure which is "way below the standards, and technically never existed", because the past and current governments never really cared about investing into it.

Personally for me it means, I am STILL getting disconnected on and off and on and off and on and off from the Internet at random periods of the day, and technicians cannot really solve the problem....

Oh by the way....,… "Did I actually spread the news already that I heard rumors under the table that its going to take ANOTHER 100 YEARS until people in Thailand can OFFICIALLY USE 3G???? .......

If that happens lets make a Run at 3.00000000001G

Edited October 19, 2012 by MaxLee

[RKASA]

Just move this thing forward - how much in vat and excise tax has been missed already because 80% of the possible users can't get it so they don't pay for it. Look at the harm to the public and government that has caused so far.

Going forward the government will make loads of money. If you don't sell it they can't pay tax - fighting over stang while the large bills blow away in the wind.

The only path to 4 or 5G is to get this behind us.

Low bids? It is a ton of money just for permission to pay more - besides they don't pay it, you do. They have to pass the cost on to you the user - why piss in your own beer - it is pure political BS to claim the user is harmed here.

The user will finally get 3G and the government will tax it - we have competing operators that will want to provide 4 or 5G as soon a possible to hold or gain market share - lets get this thing on air.

[Thai at Heart]

They should have opened it up for a new player in the market. 3 is too cozy

[fstarbkk]

"But it [the public) will not tolerate companies failing to honour their promises to provide wide-ranging service at a fair price."

There is very little evidence to support that statement. On the contrary, in my experience, Thai consumers have almost unlimited patience for taking poor quality service and horrendous customer support at excessive costs as a fact of life and without any meaningful resistance.

If the writer's assertion were correct, the big telecoms, ISP's, cable companies and quite a number of government entities would be in deeeep trouble.

[deesquared]

If they are just doing this now then what does the 3G icon on my phone mean?!

[animatic]

4G is already being being installed now.

They a decade behind the curve because of infighting, not ability to pay for it.

A national ClusterXXXX for sure, and they seem proud of getting to this point now.

[redroo]

If they are just doing this now then what does the 3G icon on my phone mean?!

It means 1G and sometimes it means no internet.

And don't get truemove or you will end up in tears from frustration.

[redsox44]

4G is already being being installed now.

They a decade behind the curve because of infighting, not ability to pay for it.

A national Clusterf**k for sure, and they seem proud of getting to this point now.

Funny thing is AIS is currently installing 4G in Cambodia and Laos.....

[MaxLee]

If they are just doing this now then what does the 3G icon on my phone mean?!

It means 1G and sometimes it means no internet.

And don't get truemove or you will end up in tears from frustration.

No matter if you use truemove, TOT, CAT, AIS or whatever, broadband services in Thailand generally stink and are all the same: unreliable services with on and off-disconnections every random now and then, it is just terrible for more than 2 weeks again...

[wpcoe]

There are two issues I wonder about:

If this 3G auction has the highest result: i.e. it is properly (efficiently and efficiently) implemented and there is a large new group of subscribers to a solid product, how does that correspond to the already undersized data pipelines out of Thailand? It's already difficult to achieve multi-Mbps throughput to/from Europe or America on a consistent basis. Add in a whole flock of new 3G users trying to cram on the mini-data highway out of Thailand, and what happens?

My understanding is that the 2100Mhz frequency has a much shorter range from the cell tower than, say 850 or 950Mhz. That means a denser system of cell towers will be needed. This does not bode well for 3G penetrating the outlying, especially less populated, parts of Thailand. A 850Mhz cell tower out in the sticks can cover such an area much better, no?

[deesquared]

If they are just doing this now then what does the 3G icon on my phone mean?!

It means 1G and sometimes it means no internet. And don't get truemove or you will end up in tears from frustration.

I've had True Move for over a year and a half now and I love it. At first I had "E" when I was with 12Call and it was painfully slow. Then I got True, which offered "3G." It was indeed WAY faster than "E." I was able to use 3G in Phuket, BKK and CNX with no problems at all. And then I got an SMS from True saying they now offered a faster service they were calling "3G+." They said to come by the shop for a free SIM card upgrade. So I did and it was indeed faster than 3G. I've really enjoyed having this new 3G+ service and now, I've noticed that I always have 3G+ or at least 3G no matter which province I am in. And it's always a TON faster then my friends using Edge ("E").

[bigbamboo]

The advent of this new technology has the potential to bridge the digital divide between sections of society and support development that will upgrade the living conditions of people.

????

Wonder what that means? Although I would think that Thailand has one of the most inexpensive tariffs in the world...how does bandwidth put rice in the bowl? Same same computerized vehicles equals road safety no doubt.....

In the same way this 'new technology' has done already in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar perhaps?

[billd766]

There are two issues I wonder about:

If this 3G auction has the highest result: i.e. it is properly (efficiently and efficiently) implemented and there is a large new group of subscribers to a solid product, how does that correspond to the already undersized data pipelines out of Thailand? It's already difficult to achieve multi-Mbps throughput to/from Europe or America on a consistent basis. Add in a whole flock of new 3G users trying to cram on the mini-data highway out of Thailand, and what happens?

My understanding is that the 2100Mhz frequency has a much shorter range from the cell tower than, say 850 or 950Mhz. That means a denser system of cell towers will be needed. This does not bode well for 3G penetrating the outlying, especially less populated, parts of Thailand. A 850Mhz cell tower out in the sticks can cover such an area much better, no?

Absolutely they need more coverage out in the rural areas. The distance that a 2.1gHz will travel is about 1/4 that of a 950mHz signal.

I spent a year in 2008/2009 in NZ running a project to instal 3G for Vodafone there. Every tower had to have new multiband antennas and feeder cables though inside the sites was easier as the new equipment took up less room than the old stuff. Planning was the hardest thing as every site was supposed to be checked by Vodafone before we got it and even then we had quite a few problems. We hired helicopters and 50 ton cranes for some sites and at one site on the mountain the ski lift operator told me to make sure that my team ahd supplies of food, water, clothing and sleeping bags for 10 days in case they were cut off. Not a problem here though.

[zakk9]

They should have opened it up for a new player in the market. 3 is too cozy

Anybody could bid, but nobody are interested. The constant chasing of DTAC for possible breach of the ownership rules have scared all prospective foreign investors off the Thai telecom market.

[drdoom6996]

All this rhetoric and justification, supposition, assumption, ... what a croc. There will only be three primary beneficiaries of this outdated technology from this scam being justified in the media as some super digital essential tech. It's all about the money...

How can you of all people complain? You are the king of suppose, justify and assuming about things you may or may not know anything about.

[asiawatcher]

They should have opened it up for a new player in the market. 3 is too cozy

No.. ... no such thing as price fixing in Thailand - and they called that an auction? Those turkeys knew EXACTLY how much each was paying prior to the crappy charade put on. Handshakes, stern looks, sign on the dotted line and all meet down the road for a happy ending massage and Johnnie Black.

[Thai at Heart]

They should have opened it up for a new player in the market. 3 is too cozy

Anybody could bid, but nobody are interested. The constant chasing of DTAC for possible breach of the ownership rules have scared all prospective foreign investors off the Thai telecom market.

There was another bidder but he was screened out beforehand due to technicalities. The is far too cosy and ripe for a 4th player.

[bkk_mike]

The one good thing - because they've got to keep paying TOT (or CAT) for customers on the 2G service, but won't have to pay them for customers on 3G, the roll-out of 3G base stations should actually be pretty quick and pretty widespread. (It's not as if it's cutting-edge hardware these days, so supply shouldn't be a big issue).

The nasty part, as always in Thailand, will be the connection from the base stations back to their servers as fiber isn't as ubiquitous as it needs to be to support proper internet usage on 3G. And Thailand's connection to the rest of the world, although improving, won't cope if people start streaming video to their phones from servers in the US.

i.e. I fully expect to see the 3G symbol on my phone virtually everywhere fairly soon, but for the internet access to only be decent in places that have fiber connections back to their servers, and not such high user density that even fiber gets swamped. (i.e. Central Bangkok will probably have blazing speeds at night, but the cell towers will be overloaded during the day. Maybe Pattaya and Phuket will have decent speeds?)

[whybother]

They should have opened it up for a new player in the market. 3 is too cozy

No one else will invest unless they have some control over their investment. The government's planned rules on "Foreign Dominance" basically means there is no chance that an investor could have any control of their money.