True confident of dominance in five years

[webfact]

True confident of dominance in five years
USANEE MONGKOLPORN
THE NATION



BANGKOK: -- AFTER ADDING a 900MHz licence to its wireless broadband portfolio, True is brimming with confidence that it could vault itself to the top of the market within five years.

True has amassed 55 megahertz of bandwidth after acquiring 10MHz from the 900MHz frequency from winning the bidding for one of the 900MHz licences last week.

In the first 10 years of its cellular business operation, it had only 12.5MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum to play with.

"Our situation now is far different from those days as now we're the richest [in spectrum]. This will be our springboard to jump to a higher level.

"That's why we had to acquire the 900MHz licence, and it was worth winning it. We don't think we overpaid," Suphachai Chearavanont, chief executive officer, said yesterday.

The third-largest telecom player has set an ambitious target of capturing 34 per cent of the market's revenue in five years, up from 20 per cent at present, and becoming the No 1 provider of fourth-generation wireless broadband in five years.

Advanced Info Service is the current leader with a 52-per-cent market share, followed by Total Access Communication (DTAC) with 39 per cent, a telecom analyst said.

True will spend Bt55 billion over three years, mostly on the 4G network roll-out, Suphachai said.

True already had 15MHz of the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum and 15MHz of 1,800MHz that it gained from previous rounds before the 900MHz auction.

It has also partnered with CAT Telecom to provide 3G on CAT's 15MHz of 850MHz.

The incumbent market leader has now become the one with spectrum constraints, since it has the largest customer base with 45 million users but only has 30MHz of bandwidth to serve them, Suphachai said.

True has 23 million wireless-broadband users but 55MHz of bandwidth.

True will deploy its bandwidth on the 900MHz spectrum to serve the 2G market, which is estimated to have |15 million users, while allocating 15MHz of the 850MHz spectrum and 10MHz of 2.1GHz to support its 3G service.

"We'll use the remaining 5MHz of 2.1GHz, 10MHz of 900MHz and 15MHz of 1,800MHz - totalling 30MHz - to provide 4G," Suphachai said.

There will probably not be any price war but True will focus on offering quality mobile data services at a low price, he said.

True has no need to recapitalise but will finance business development via bank loans, network suppliers' credit and proceeds from selling its network assets to its Digital Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund.

True is in no hurry to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee, as the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission allows the winners to pay it within 90 days after its approval of the auction results.

Once the payment is made, the winners will be awarded their licence.

Jasmine Mobile Broadband's entry to the market as the fourth wireless broadband player is no cause for concern, Suphachai said. The top two players will seek ways to acquire additional bandwidth to reinforce their competitiveness.

True yesterday launched its latest marketing campaign with the slogan "May the Force Be with True" and the message that it will become the leader in the 4G market.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/True-confident-of-dominance-in-five-years-30275412.html

-- The Nation 2015-12-22

[bark]

Dominance = Monopoly which = illegal !!

[awayego]

Dominance = Monopoly which = illegal !!

Agreed. Not healthy at all for consumers. But "illegal"? Here? In Thailand? Where 'legality' can be bought?

[Ks45672]

Since I know their plans now I switch back to ais..... That will teach them

[Bluespunk]

zzz zzz zzz