Samart, partner to provide 3G

 Samart president Watchai Vilailuck said last week that the company would capitalise on Axiata’s experience. Axiata owns over 24 per cent of Samart’s handset and content maker, Samart i-Mobile.
Samart plans to request 40-50 per cent of TOT’s 3G bandwidth capacity, which is rated at 7.2 million customers.
Axiata is reportedly interested in bidding for 2.1GHZ licences from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. Watchai said he had already asked the company about its intentions but the company has yet to declare any policy on the matter.
Five firms are providing 3G service on TOT’s network on temporary MVNO contracts. One of them is Samart i-Mobile’s subsidiary I Mobile Plus. TOT is drawing up new terms of reference for 13-year MVNO contracts for any interested firms.
An MVNO is a firm without its own network that leases capacity from network operators to provide telecom services.
I Mobile Plus has 200,000 3G customers. If it can clinch a new MVNO contract from TOT, it is expected to boost the subscriber base to 700,000 this year.
TOT last year hired the consortium of Loxley-Samart to install 5,320 3G base stations nationwide. The rollout was expected to be completed next month.
But Watchai said that only 3,000 bases will be ready by May, due to the flooding last year, and the rest will be in place by the third quarter. There are now 1,000 base stations available, of which 800 are switched on.
TOT also plans to install 15,000 more 3G base stations worth Bt30 billion this year. This phase will include the 4G network rollout. Samart is interested in bidding for the project, he added.