TOT to select business partner, settle AIS tower dispute next week

Djit Laowattana, spokesman of TOT’s board of directors, said yesterday the state agency would wrap up the two issues before the AIS concession expires on September 30.
Five telecom operators – AIS, True Corp, Loxley, Samart Corp and Mobile LTE – have proposed to be business partners of TOT’s six core business units, including to jointly provide 3G-2.1GHz wireless broadband service with TOT on the state agency’s 2.1GHz spectrum. The TOT executive committee will examine their proposals again today.
While it has been speculated that TOT would select AIS as its mobile business partner, Djit said the state agency would select the partner that submits the best proposals. TOT will select a mobile service business partner first, which could be more than one partner, before selecting a submarine cable business partner in the next step.
The state agency has to finish selecting a mobile service business partner before the auctions of the new spectrum licences late this year by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission on concerns that the auctions could have an impact on its negotiations for the possible partnership.
To solve the telecom tower dispute with AIS, TOT has three options: Allow AIS to rent the towers; set up a joint venture with AIS to manage the towers; and establish the infrastructure fund to put the towers up for leasing. TOT has generally been perceived as incompetent. It was the first operator in Thailand to launch a 3G wireless broadband service on 2.1GHz spectrum in 2009. It has provided this service with five mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) partners.
However, TOT and its five MVNO partners have only about 600,000 3G subscribers, of which 250,000 are with TOT.
TOT has provided the 3G service on around 5,000 telecom towers, of which 1,700 belong to TOT. It spent over Bt20 billion on the 3G network rollout over the past years.