Thailand Pagers To Stop Beeping

Thailand pagers to stop beeping

BANGKOK: -- Paging services will be eased out of Thailand market with the last service provider Hutchison Telecommunications opting out of business later this week.

Mushrooming of mobile phones has rendered pagers all but obsolete and Hutchison's Thailand unit has sought permission to terminate its paging service that has been losing money since 2001.

Hutchison brought paging to Thailand in 1990 and its subscriber base has been depleting rapidly, from 23,063 in 2001 to 3,873 last year, Bangkok Post reported.

Hutchison's license is expected to be revoked on Friday.

Hutchison was one of three paging companies that once operated under licenses by the Telephone Organization of Thailand. The other two paging service providers -PhoneLink and Worldpage - have already packed up their shop.

--UPI 2004-03-24