CAT eyes Bt25 bn from 3G venture with True

CAT leases the network from True’s BFKT (Thailand) to wholesale the service to another True subsidiary, Real Move, which provides the cellular service under the TrueMove H brand.
The state agency, meanwhile, uses some of the network capacity to provide its own retail service under the My brand.
TrueMove H and My services have 3 million and 100,000 customers respectively.
CAT had requested an additional 16.2 million mobile-phone numbers from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to offer third-generation 850MHz service with True, but the NBTC granted only 5 million numbers.
CAT has appealed against the watchdog’s decision, arguing that it required the full 16 million numbers as its existing network capacity could serve 16 million users.
Kitisak said CAT had reached agreement with Real Move that the latter would purchase an additional 17 per cent of network capacity from the state agency in order to provide the service. Real Move currently uses 80 per cent of the network’s capacity.
CAT is expected to gain Bt3.3 billion per year from wholesaling the additional capacity to Real Move, although only Bt2.5 billion will be generated this calendar year as the agreement has only just been signed, he said.
CAT plans to spend Bt29 billion on service development under the True partnership, of which Bt14 billion would be for fibre-optic network expansion and Bt15 billion for leasing the BFKT network, he added.
It will seek approval of the investment plan from state agencies and the Cabinet. CAT and True are expected to finish joint amendment of the 3G service contracts under their partnership within three months of Cabinet approval of the investment plan.