Real move to miss customer target this year but

He added that this year Real Move was likely to miss the target of 1 million customers because of the flood crisis. It has about 700,000 subscribers at this point.
True Group plans to invest between Bt22 billion and Bt25 billion next year, of which Bt15 billion to Bt17 Billion will be spent on expanding Real Move’s third-generation cellular network, and Bt5 billion to Bt7 billion on expansion of the broadband Internet network.
Real Move provides 3G service under the TrueMove H brand. Of the targeted 4 million subscribers, about 900,000 will be existing customers of Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia who all will migrate to Real Move’s network. Then Hutchison-CAT will switch off its service in the first half of next year.
True has already migrated some Hutchison-CAT customers to Real Move’s network but at a slow pace, as the Clearinghouse Co’s phone-number-portability service can handle only 400 number transfers per day per operator. Number portability allows mobile-phone customers to switch to different cellular networks while keeping their current telephone numbers.
Colonel Settapong Malisuwan, a member of the National Broad-|casting and Telecommunications Commission, said he was in talks with Clearinghouse on expanding the capacity of its number-portability service. He said a speed-up was necessary as the concession terms of telecom operators are nearing their expiry dates. Once that happens, the concession holders will have to return their spectra to the NBTC and transfer customers to other active networks.
The migration of Hutchison-CAT customers to Real Move is part of the True Group takeover of the businesses in Thailand of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecom last December, including Hutchison-CAT, which provides cellular service on a CDMA (code division multiple access) network.
Supachai said Real Move’s 3G network was expected to cover 95 per cent of the population nationwide next year, up from the present 65 per cent.
He expects the cellular industry next year will see 7-per-cent revenue growth.
He added that if the NBTC auctions licences next year for the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum, True Group would have to raise cash to bid for the licences, which could be done via borrowings or re-capitalisation. But it has no need to seek a strategic partner to help finance the bidding.
True Group is interested in bidding for any available licences, from 2.1GHz to the 1,800-megahertz spectrum, pending the final licensing policy of the NBTC, Supachai said.
He added that the group expected to post consolidated revenue growth at a single-digit rate next year, in line with estimated growth in gross domestic product of between 4.5 and 7 per cent in 2012. This year it expects revenue of Bt60 billion, of which Bt30 billion will be contributed by its cellular businesses, Real Move and TrueMove. Of the rest, Bt10 billion will be from pay-TV firm TrueVisions and the rest from broadband Internet service.
Currently the group has about Bt70 billion of debt.