DTAC has invested Bt150 million in refreshing its Happy brand
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TOTAL Access Communication (DTAC) expects to see fiercer competition in both 3G and 2G voice and data services due mainly to the ongoing expansion of 3G networks, the firm's chief marketing officer Sigvart Voss Eriksen said.
Advanced Info Service (AIS) and True Move H launched their 3G-2.1GHz service a couple of months ago, while DTAC will launch its service next Friday. Eriksen said his firm was optimistic about the late launch, because he believes users will have had time to consider who is the best provider.
Eriksen said DTAC's competitiveness lies in the huge spectra it offers, including 2G-1800MHz, 3G-850MHz and 3G-2.1GHz.
Advanced Wireless Network (AWN), DTAC Trinet and Real Future, each a subsidiary of AIS, DTAC and True Corp respectively, hold a 2.1GHz licence.
Pakorn Pannachet, DTAC’s senior vice president, said initially he expected to see a price war to erupt only in the fourth quarter after all 3G operators had achieved some network expansion, but now the battle seems to be coming a lot earlier.
Yesterday, DTAC invested Bt150 million on refreshing its Happy prepaid mobile-phone service, which is in line with its vision – “Internet for All”. It aims to double its active mobile Internet users from the current 7 million users in the next 12 months.
Pakorn said “the new face of Happy is more modern, trendy, energetic and dynamic to better reflect today’s consumer characteristics, respond to the changing market and more diversified customer demands, while still retaining the fun and easy-going personality of Happy that has long been associated with the brand. The new service is now shifted from ‘prepaid for mass’ to ‘prepaid for data’ in response to increasing demand of data services among prepaid consumers”.
Pakorn said DTAC expected to gain more on data revenue.
DTAC 's prepaid average revenue per usage is around Bt300 a month, while post-paid revenue is around Bt600 per month.
This year DTAC aims to have 10 million 3G users. At present it has a total of 25.6 million users, of which 22.8 million are prepaid users.
DTAC has about 2,700 sites for 3G-2.1GHz and 5,200 sites for 3G-850 MHz, plus 11,700 sites for 2G-1,800 MHz . It aims to have a total of 5,500 sites for 3G-2.1Ghz by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, AWN has some 6,000 sites for 3G-2.1GHz, while True has around 13,000 sites for 3G-850 MHz and around 100 sites for 4G 2.1GHz.
