AIS exec defends shareholding make-up
Advanced Info Service's shareholding structure complies with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's regulations against foreign dominance of telecom operators, said AIS chief operating officer Mark Chong Chin Kok.
He also said AIS was waiting for the NBTC to announce the details of its plan to auction the much-needed licences to use the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum.
The commission has said it intends to hold the auction in the third quarter for telecom operators to provide broadband cellular service on that spectrum. It says it will also revise the foreign-dominance regulations to encourage foreign players to take part in the auction.
Chong believes that the starting price for the licences will not be high as all cellular operators are already offering broadband cellular service, using their own spectra. There will also be many spectra made available in the future by the NBTC for this service.
He said AIS wanted to see the auction take place as the licensing would spark massive network investment and create jobs.
AIS is the flagship of InTouch, formerly known as Shin Corp. Cedar Holdings and Aspen Holdings, both controlled by Singapore state investment arm Temasek Holdings, own a combined 79.75-per-cent stake in InTouch, which in turn owns 40.45 per cent of AIS.
AIS chief executive officer Wichian Mektrakarn said his firm was eager to bid for a 2.1GHz licence but someone might attempt to derail the auction.
The now-defunct National Telecommunications Commission was set to auction the 2.1GHz licences in September 2010 before the move was suspended by the Central Administrative Court’s injunction that same month, as requested by CAT Telecom, which challenged NTC licensing authority at the court.
While waiting for the 2.1GHz licence, AIS has set aside a capital-expenditure budget of about Bt8 billion this year, mainly to expand the base stations for its existing 3G network on the 900-megahertz spectrum to 3,500 in 17 provinces, up from about 2,000 in those provinces currently.
AIS has more than 1.2 million 3G customers. The network expansion will boost its 3G network capacity to serve 5 million users, up from the present 2-million capacity.
In total, AIS has more than 33.4 million mobile-phone subscribers.
Its competitor Total Access Communication (DTAC) will also expand coverage of its 3G-850MHz network. It has targeted coverage of 45 provinces by next month, with about 2,200 base stations. Then it will further expand the 3G network to cover every district in Thailand by the end of next year. Currently its more than 1,200 3G base stations cover 20 provinces. DTAC has more than 1.1 million 3G users.
Real Move, which has leased 3G-850MHz bandwidth from CAT Telecom to provide service, has about 800,000 customers. TrueMove has about 400,000 3G-850MHz customers. Both Real Move and TrueMove are subsidiaries of True Corp.
