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DaffyDuck
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This is meant just for updates on *mobile* high-speed and wireless access options.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:58 pm on April 20, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Primarily, it seems that all major carriers in Thailand will be converging on the 3G service provided on the GSM service - HSDPA, HSUPA, and HSPA. So far, even the CDMA holdouts (CAT and Hutch) have declared eventually abandoning CDMA in favor of the GSM based system (HSPA and LTA).
DTAC plans to launch 3G in two provinces:
http://www.magmareport.com/content/2489?PHPSESSID=1b2380752bed37e49cda44a2418ba9a7
DTAC to launch 3G in two provinces
[ English Reporter - 31.03.2551 12:10 ]
DTAC, the country's second-largest mobile operator, is preparing to introduce high-speed packet access (HSPA) commercial services in Phuket and Chon Buri as part of its five billion baht third-generation (3G) investment plan.
DTAC to launch 3G in two provinces
SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN
DTAC, the country's second-largest mobile operator, is preparing to introduce high-speed packet access (HSPA) commercial services in Phuket and Chon Buri as part of its five billion baht third-generation (3G) investment plan.
A nationwide offering is expected in 2009 in line with the wider availability of HSPA devices, including mobile handsets, laptop computers and data cards, said Sigve Brekke, the chief executive officer of DTAC.
Mr Brekke said that DTAC today would submit a letter to the National Telecommunications Commission requesting approval to upgrade its analogue 850 Megahertz frequency to HSPA.
DTAC has been in talks with CAT Telecom to form a joint-venture firm to provide 3G services on the 850 MHz frequency. The NTC has also given approval to DTAC's larger rival, Advanced Info Service (AIS) to upgrade 30 base stations to HSPA in a programme expected to cost $20 million.
''If the NTC gives us approval shortly, we can start providing HSPA commercial services by the end of this year,'' Mr Brekke said. ''Phuket and Chon Buri will be the first two commercial provinces for HSPA.''
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 4:01 pm on April 20, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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While AIS is also hedging its bets with WiMAX *which will probably just lose money*, it is also planning to roll out it's own 3G service.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/03/22/business/business_30068885.php
AIS to launch 3g broadband this year
Advanced Info Service (AIS) is set to launch a 3G broadband cellular service on its existing 900MHz band within the next six months, its president Wichian Mektrakarn said yesterday.
Published on March 22, 2008
TOT, which owns the AIS concession, already has permission from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for AIS to import the third-generation equipment needed for the service.
However, the service is expected to be limited to some potential areas, said Wichian, who declined to specify the exact locations or investment cost.
If launched, AIS still has to share the revenue from the 3G service with TOT, given that the service will be launched on its existing concession owned by the state agency.
A telecom industry source said AIS planned to spend Bt7 billion over the next three years on rolling out such a service on its 900MHz band.
"It's not big money. AIS will not spend too much on developing the 3G service, given that it still has to share 3G revenue with TOT. More than that, I don't think there will be a high demand for 3G at this stage," he added.
CAT Telecom will also ask for NTC permission to allow Total Access Communication (DTAC) to import equipment to develop the 3G service on DTAC's 850MHz band.
Sigve Brekke, chief executive of DTAC, said the company had the advantage over AIS in that it has already tested the 3G service on its 850MHz band with CAT, but he declined to say when DTAC would launch the service.
He added that DTAC planned to spend Bt5 billion on developing the 3G service nationwide on the 850MHz band.
True Move chief executive Supachai Chearavanont said his company had enough cash flow to spend on rolling out the service.
CAT, which owns True Move's concession, has promised the firm that it would allocate parts of the existing 850MHz band from Hutchison-CAT to True Move to provide the 3G service. Hutchison-CAT is the joint venture of CAT and Hong Kong's telecom giant Hutchison Telecom.
All telecom operators have disclosed their plans to launch 3G services on their existing spectrums after receiving Information and Communications Technology Minister Mun Patanotai's approval to do so yesterday.
Mun called the state telecom agencies and private telecom operators in to ask them to go ahead and launch the 3G services.
He also asked the state concession owners and private telecom concessionaires to seek resolutions to their existing legal dispute.
Telecom Reporters
The Nation
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:03 pm on April 20, 2008
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FIB
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Timely subject indeed. And it's becoming very hard to find a Wimax defender nowadays (or at least somebody defending deploying Wimax only to the exclusion of any other wireless broadband solution).
Don Sambandaraksa's comments on the issue
quote from the article:
A worst case scenario is Thailand finally issuing 3G licences and then protecting them far beyond a reasonable timeframe from a technology standpoint. 3G is more expensive than 4G to run in the long term, and that cost will of course be passed down to the user in the form of higher airtime bills. In three years, perhaps the world will have all moved to LTE 4G while Thailand's new regulator (drawn up with the new constitution the government is so eager to re-write) is waiting to be set up. But if that does happen, at least we journalists can simply re-use our criticism of the lack of 3G, searching and replacing 3 for 4 and WCDMA for LTE, and re-run old columns for another decade.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 7:24 pm on April 20, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Yeah, I just read that same article. Good article, and some pretty real concerns -- the catch-22 is that by waiting for 4G, they would just further delay the whole wheel of progress (as their last decisions already have done).
While 3G (HSUPA or HSDPA) might seem more expensive by that logic, it allows re-use of existing infrastructure (i.e. GSM), instead of all new infrastructure - plus, any 3G and 3.5G stuff is upgradeable to LTE.
So, from a pragmatic point of view, the solution is easy.
They will probably select whoever greases the regulator's palms best - and I'm sure the new guys placed in charge of regulation will be just as qualified as the formerly appointed Internet Czar (the guy that never used the web, 'because it's too complicated')
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 8:10 pm on April 20, 2008
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FIB
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Seems it's on track for 3G...
The Nation
The national telecom regulator believes it can grant third-generation (3G) spectrum licenses on schedule in August and affirms the licensing will be conducted transparently.
But the National Telecommunica-tions Commission (NTC) must further delay the schedule to grant licences for WiMax wireless broadband technology from mid-year, pending the completion of WiMax trials of 13 private companies, said secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn.
Suranan said the NTC told Ricardo Tavares, senior vice president for public policy at GSMA who visited the watchdog agency yesterday, that the NTC would try its best to grant licences on schedule for 2.1-gigahertz spectrum bands to offer 3G broadband cellular service.
GSMA is the mobile-phone industry's global trade association, representing more than 700 GSM mobile-phone operators worldwide.
The NTC board assured him 3G spectrum licensing would be carried out in the utmost transparent manner.
Suranan said Tavares told the NTC that his major concern was the transparency of 3G licensing, which was the key to ensuring fair competition.
Interconnect Communications, the NTC's consultant for drafting the 3G licences, is expected to finish the first draft of 3G licensing terms and conditions next Monday, and the NTC will look into it next month.
The global common practice of granting 3G spectrum licences includes an auction or a "beauty contest", which refers to companies with the most viable proposals getting the licences.
Three major cellular operators - Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move - are eager to pitch for the 3G spectrum licences. In parallel, they are moving with a plan to develop the 3G service on their existing spectra.
While progress has been made on the 3G-licensing side, Suranan said the NTC had to put off plans to grant WiMax licences from mid-year, because 11 of the 13 companies testing WiMax could not complete the tests this month. They requested the NTC to extend the trial period for another 90 days.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 12:43 am on April 24, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from FIB on 3:09 pm on April 24, 2008
The NTC board assured him 3G spectrum licensing would be carried out in the utmost transparent manner.
Uh..huh... sure...
Good to know that it appears to at least be moving forward. I think we'll see the carrier's own 3G plans come to fruition first before anything official (i.e. DTAC appears the furthest along, with AIS trailing)
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:04 am on April 24, 2008
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DaffyDuck
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I continue to like DTAC, and consider them to be the far better carrier of the available Thai carriers (with AIS at the bottom of that list) - it's my impression that DTAC actually cares (as much as a commercial entity can) about setting up a proper 3G network, while AIS is just paying lip service:
In the grand scheme of things, it seems (to me, at least) that DTAC has a vision, while AIS just continues 'TiT'
http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/29Apr2008_biz27.php
DTAC makes its own 3G plans
by SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN
A DTAC employee visits the Floating Market at Damnoen Saduak to promote a campaign to lift its share of the country's two-billion-baht online refill market from 50% to 70% by 2010. DTAC earned 3.5 billion baht from refill revenue last year, 25% of which was paid online.
DTAC, the country's second-largest mobile operator, is making a strategic U-turn in its third-generation mobile plans by going it alone in upgrading 2G networks to 3G under a five-billion-baht plan.
The company also plans to apply for use of the 2100 Megahertz spectrum with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) as the second path for 3G mobile broadband services.
The move signals a rush into 3G business after its bigger rival Advanced Info Service recently announced that it would launch commercial 3G services in Chiang Mai next month and in Bangkok in June.
CEO Sigve Brekke said DTAC expected to roll out commercial 3G services at least in Phuket and Chon Buri by the end of this year.
The company would upgrade its analogue 850 MHz frequency to high-speed download packet access (HSDPA), once it receives approval from CAT Telecom next month. Nationwide service would begin in 2009.
DTAC earlier said it was in talks with CAT to form a joint-venture firm to provide 3G services on the 850 MHz frequency. Mr Brekke acknowledged that setting up a partnership with the state enterprise would take more time because it needed to receive cabinet approval.
''We are no longer waiting for CAT, and need to go it alone ourselves,'' he said, adding that DTAC planned to meet the CAT board this week to encourage it to approve the upgrade plan.
However, Mr Brekke said DTAC would not abandon its joint-venture plan with CAT and would continue proceeding with the partnership deal even after the commercial roll-out services.
''We are willing to have CAT as our partner. It can be formed after the launch,'' he said.
Mr Brekke said DTAC was on the verge of buying 3G equipment from one of the three prospective suppliers. It was also under reorganisation to serve the next-generation mobile services.
For 3G content development, he said, DTAC recently took over three content firms _ Radio Fat Co, Play Sabai Co, and Create Co _ for a combined 150 million baht to prepare for the service. Internet access and mobile broadband through 3G, with a minimum speed of one megabit per second, would be the targeted application demands.
He said DTAC expected to realise 3G revenue in 2010. 3G services are expected to increase the proportion of the company's non-voice revenue from 10% to 20% in the next two years.
Mr Brekke also said that AIS's planned commercial launch of 3G, enhanced by HSPA, could be called only a commercial test, not a full launch, based on the planned upgrading of 30 base stations.
In Bangkok alone, he said, at least 1,000 base stations would need to be built to allow a full 3G service.
He added that testing HSPA on the unconventional 900-MHz band of AIS could also entail future incompatibilities.
DTAC shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 45 baht, down one baht, in trade worth 53.9 million baht.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:55 am on April 29, 2008
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FIB
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Quote: from DaffyDuck on 2:21 am on April 30, 2008
it's my impression that DTAC actually cares (as much as a commercial entity can) about setting up a proper 3G network, while AIS is just paying lip service
Or Sigve is just more media conscious (good for him and DTAC anyway)...
Remember: what matters really (what will happen to the relatively soon to expire 2G consessions and their allocated spectrum and how will the 2.1 Ghz spectrum be allocated) is happening behind closed doors, at least at the moment.
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 8:21 am on May 1, 2008
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