Demand growing fast for CAT's 3G service

He said there were at least five companies now asking to lease the airtime of its third-generation broadband wireless service on 850 megahertz, on a mobile virtual network operator basis. An MVNO leases airtime from telecom operators to provide service.

Kitisak said “365 Communication and M Link were the first two companies to approach us, and deals with them are expected to be finalised this year”. 

The other company that has approached CAT to make a similar deal is an insurance firm, he said. 

According to CAT, 365 Communication plans to provide a service for up to 300,000 users, and pay CAT Bt300 million a year under the deal. 

CAT’s 3G-850MHz network has total capacity to cater for 17 million users. Currently, Real Move of True Corp is leasing 97 per cent of its capacity. Real Move has about 3 million users and CAT also uses the network to serve 100,0000 of its own customers.

CAT provides the 3G-850MHz service in partnership with True Corp and True’s subsidiary BFKT (Thailand) leases the network equipment to CAT to generate bandwidth for wholesale and resale. Revenues for CAT under its partnership are expected to reach Bt25 billion this year, said Kitisak, adding that CAT would soon submit the Bt15-billion 3G-850MHz investment plan for Cabinet approval. 

The Council of State recently said the 3G-850MHz project was not subject to the Public-Private Joint Venture Act of 1992. CAT signed the CAT-True 3G-850MHz partnership deal in January 2011, but the deal has been criticised and probed by a number of government agencies – prompting CAT previously to shelve its Bt15-billion 3G-850MHz network expansion.

 

Revenue forecast 

On Wednesday, CAT’s board said it agreed with the management’s new revenue forecast for this year, which predicts profits of Bt887 million – an improvement on its earlier forecast, which stated losses in the region of Bt1.807 billion.

“The Bt887 million does not include the revenue from concession contracts we will receive by the end of this year. About 62 per cent of our revenue comes from the mobile business, which will account for about Bt25 billion this year,” Kitisak said.

Under the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law, both CAT and TOT are obligated to transfer concession revenue to the state.

“We are confident that we will see a profit at the end of this year,” Kitisak said.

In related news, Kitisak said he anticipated that CAT would be able to settle its telecom-tower dispute with True by the end of this year. 

Under its concession contract with the agency, TrueMove has to transfer all network assets to CAT after the end of its concession on September 15. 

True has yet to transfer all of it 8,000 telecom towers to CAT because of a dispute over ownership. The case is now before an arbitration panel.