Price War On Prepaid Mobiles Heats Up In Thailand

[udon]

Price war on prepaid heats up in Thailand

Jul 10, 2006

Telecom Asia Daily

(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thailand's third-ranked mobile operator True Move has mounted a strong defense against DTAC's promotional push into the prepaid customer market, by announcing it will allow customers to receive calls for two years without any top-up refill requirement.

Earlier, second-ranked DTAC had introduced a plan allowing prepaid users to receive calls for one year for a top-up refill of 20 baht ($0.5) or more.

Suphakit Vuntanadit, marketing director of True, said the company's campaign was intended primarily to pave the way for the new interconnection regime, by enticing customers to make calls within the True network.

Interconnection rates, which are set to take effect by the end of this year following negotiations, are the fees operators charge each other for handling calls across different networks.

The three major mobile operators in the country, AIS, DTAC and True Move, have tentatively agreed on a charge for outgoing calls of 1.07 baht ($0.02) a minute, including VAT.

With the new promotional package, good until August 15, True Move customers need to buy a new SIM card for 99 baht ($2.6) and will get free 50 baht ($1) worth of calling credits.

They will be allowed to receive calls for two years with no top-up refill requirement when they make a call at least one minute every 90 days.

[JAS21]

Price war on prepaid heats up in Thailand

Jul 10, 2006

Telecom Asia Daily

(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thailand's third-ranked mobile operator True Move has mounted a strong defense against DTAC's promotional push into the prepaid customer market, by announcing it will allow customers to receive calls for two years without any top-up refill requirement.

Earlier, second-ranked DTAC had introduced a plan allowing prepaid users to receive calls for one year for a top-up refill of 20 baht ($0.5) or more.

Suphakit Vuntanadit, marketing director of True, said the company's campaign was intended primarily to pave the way for the new interconnection regime, by enticing customers to make calls within the True network.

Interconnection rates, which are set to take effect by the end of this year following negotiations, are the fees operators charge each other for handling calls across different networks.

The three major mobile operators in the country, AIS, DTAC and True Move, have tentatively agreed on a charge for outgoing calls of 1.07 baht ($0.02) a minute, including VAT.

With the new promotional package, good until August 15, True Move customers need to buy a new SIM card for 99 baht ($2.6) and will get free 50 baht ($1) worth of calling credits.

They will be allowed to receive calls for two years with no top-up refill requirement when they make a call at least one minute every 90 days.

We bought a couple of cards when we got her just over a week ago.

At the time thought it was a good deal..ours was 30Baht credit.. calls 1Baht/hour 5am to 5pm and then 3Baht/min 5pm onwards. However 300Baht of credit needs to be used within the month or lost. Some smaller amounts last from only about 3Days . We make all our calls on her phone and just keep mine incase 'I get Lost!'

I just thought that if the 99Baht deal turns out useless we would just get someones elses sims as we are only her for 3 months this time.

[Khun Bob]

Price war on prepaid heats up in Thailand

Jul 10, 2006

Telecom Asia Daily

(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thailand's third-ranked mobile operator True Move has mounted a strong defense against DTAC's promotional push into the prepaid customer market, by announcing it will allow customers to receive calls for two years without any top-up refill requirement.

Earlier, second-ranked DTAC had introduced a plan allowing prepaid users to receive calls for one year for a top-up refill of 20 baht ($0.5) or more.

Suphakit Vuntanadit, marketing director of True, said the company's campaign was intended primarily to pave the way for the new interconnection regime, by enticing customers to make calls within the True network.

Interconnection rates, which are set to take effect by the end of this year following negotiations, are the fees operators charge each other for handling calls across different networks.

The three major mobile operators in the country, AIS, DTAC and True Move, have tentatively agreed on a charge for outgoing calls of 1.07 baht ($0.02) a minute, including VAT.

With the new promotional package, good until August 15, True Move customers need to buy a new SIM card for 99 baht ($2.6) and will get free 50 baht ($1) worth of calling credits.

They will be allowed to receive calls for two years with no top-up refill requirement when they make a call at least one minute every 90 days.

Does this mean that if i buy the sims before the promotion end date 15/8/06, but do not activate them that i can activate them afterwards and get a no that will be good for 2 years ?

However as you have to make a 1 min call every 90 days - if you are out of thailand for longer periods the dtac simple sim may be a better option. Also with the dtac simple sim if you top up just before the end of june 2007 you get an extra year from then on....

If you have an existing prepay dtac sim it can be changed to simple for 50 baht and then do a 20bt top up to get your credit valid for a year. Plus you can get your 50bt back each month allegedly by doing *103*200# - hasnt worked for me yet but have to have had the service active for a month (only had it for a few days so far - but *101# states credit is valid for a year....)

Edited July 16, 2006 by Khun Bob

[Khun Bob]

got some true sims yesterday v cheap - 60bt and comes with 60bt credot - with true move it is possible to change package for 30bt so did to the 2 year deal - spoke to cust service on 1331 and guy said no is good for 2 years even if dont make calls it is just the credot that expires after 90 days if no calls made. Also went to a true move shop and got conflicting information - told that if no calls made after 90 days then the number is disconnected. I tend to beleive the latter but would prefer the former to be true.. Anyone with further information/experience - please comment...