CAT Telecom to launch CDMA service in 51 provinces next year

BANGKOK: -- CAT Telecom Plc will kick off the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1x cellular service in 51 provinces in next January and will rely on the lowcost handsets to quickly nab subscribers.

CAT's chief finance officer in charge of the project, Jirayuth Rungsrithong, said Thursday that CAT would partially launch the CDMA service in October and go fully commercial in January when 1,600 CDMA base stations in 51 provinces are expected to be completely rolled out.

-- The Nation 2006-07-27

Isn't that what Hutch already use?

Isn't that what Hutch already use?

Yes that is correct, however Hutch started by using Motorla base station equipment and CAT will be using Hua Wei stuff from China.

Hutch covers a large area including Bangkok, the eastern seaboard, down towards Hua Hin and out towards Kanchanaburi.

When I started working on mobile phone systems back in 1987 (I still do ocaissionaly) it was a case of never mind the price, look at the quality. Now it is never mind the quality, look at the cheap price.

The trade off between price and quality is the service you get for your money.

You can build a really good system but it will be expensive, a reasonable system you can get cheaper, or a realy crappy system for a low price.

As in most things nowadays, people care more about the cost than the quality.

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys, high prelates like chimpanzees get paid bananas.

It sounds like a very expensive project for the already saturated Mobile Phone market in Thailand.

I use a CDMA phone in India, but cannot say that the quality of service is any better than GSM.