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1800MHz licence winners to spend Bt54 bn on 4G network roll-outs

USANEE MONGKOLPORN
THE NATION



Suphachai shows the 1800MHz licence

BANGKOK: THE two winners in last month's 1800MHz licence auction, Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) and True Move H Universal Communication (TUC), have announced combined expenditure of at least Bt54 billion on rolling out their 4G networks on the newly acquired spectrum.

TUC expects to spend at least Bt40 billion during the next two years on 4G-1800MHz network roll-out, True Corp chief executive officer Suphachai Chearavanont said yesterday. TUC obtained the 1800MHz licence yesterday.

On Thursday, Advanced Info Service (AIS) - the parent company of AWN - informed the Stock

Exchange of Thailand that its preliminary budget for 4G-1800MHz network roll-out was Bt14.52 billion.

Their race for 4G supremacy began yesterday when TUC kicked off the 4G-1800MHz service on its existing 4G-2.1GHz network, while AWN kicked off its trial-service launch.

AWN this month will send an SMS to target customers - those living within its 4G-1800MHz network coverage of 1,000 base stations in Bangkok and other major cities - allowing them to use the service free of charge until the commercial launch.

AWN will launch the service commercially in January via 6,000 base stations in Bangkok and major cities.

AIS chief executive officer Somchai Lertsutiwong said AIS aimed to cover the whole country with its 4G-1800MHz network by the end of next year.

He does not believe there will be fierce price competition in the provision of 4G service.

Suphachai, meanwhile, said TUC expected to have 5,000 base stations for 4G-1800MHz by the end of this month, rising to 10,000 bases within the next three months.

"Initially, True will use 10MHz of 1800MHz to offer 4G service, and the rest for 2G service. In the next 12 months, it will utilise a combined 15MHz of the 1800MHz spectrum and 15MHz of 2.1GHz to provide 4G service. This will enable us to maintain our leadership in wireless broadband service, and to deal with prospective intense competition in wireless data service next year," he explained.

True is keen to acquire a 900MHz licence in the auction on December 15, which it would use to

expand its 4G service in the provinces, he confirmed, adding that its offering of 3G service on CAT Telecom's 850MHz spectrum would solely focus on the 3G service.

True group still has around 1 million 2G subscribers.The company's 4G subscriber base is expected to double next year, from the present 2.2 million, said True's CEO.

True group now has around total 23 million mobile-phone service subscribers. He expects True's mobile-phone service business will post 17-per-cent growth this year, the same as last year, and double-digit-growth next year.True's average revenue per user from 4G service is Bt800 per month.

The chief executive said that, as announced earlier, True group would pay a dividend to shareholders this year, provided it made a profit.

He added that while the 4G network roll-out would raise its debt-to-equity ratio, this would only be for two years, and the company was confident of quickly being able to generate revenue from the 4G service.

Somchai said AIS currently had around 4 million subscribers waiting to use 4G service.

AIS has roughly 45 million customers, of which around 44 million are 3G users and the rest 2G users.

On Thursday, DTAC increased its existing 4G bandwidth to 15 MHz on the 1800MHz spectrum, from 10MHz previously, in order to provide faster service via its 2,200 base stations around greater Bangkok. This means it now provides 4G service on 20MHz of bandwidth - 15MHz on 1800MHz and 5MHz on 2.1GHz. DTAC's 1800MHz bandwidth is operated under a CAT Telecom concession.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/1800MHz-licence-winners-to-spend-Bt54-bn-on-4G-net-30274347.html

-- The Nation 2015-12-05

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