ICT Ministry team maps out business plans for TOT, CAT

He made the remark during a visit to TOT yesterday.
Under the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law, both state telecom agencies have to transfer all concession revenue, their main revenue source, to the state coffers within three years of the law’s taking effect in December 2010.
TOT has earned an annual concession revenue of Bt21 billion from concession contracts, including that of Thailand’s largest cellular operator, Advanced Info Service.
Anudith said if TOT could achieve all four main business targets, its performance could achieve a best-case scenario of Bt400 million in profit next year. If not, it might be confronted with a huge loss of Bt4.5 billion at the end of the year.
TOT has planned to expand its Next Generation Network coverage to achieve a total of two million broadband users by the end of next year. Currently TOT has around 1.3 million users and will reach 1.4 million by the end of this year.
TOT's 3G-2.1GHz service is expected to secure around 10 per cent of market share next year. Currently the service has only 310,000 users while there are 80 million mobile-phone customers in Thailand.
Anudith said TOT had to hurry to finish the second phase of its 3G network expansion, worth Bt20 billion, within this year. Its first phase expansion is due to finish its total of 5,320 base station rollouts in August this year. Currently there are around 4,800 base stations.
Anudith said TOT has not yet finalised its business and financial plans for the second phase, which he is concerned might be delayed.
TOT is also planning to launch a cloud-computing service to help and support small and medium-sized businesses in Thailand.
Anudith also ordered TOT to propose to him a plan to maximise its property assets nationwide to create a new revenue source.