Thaicom seeks revenue from new streams

The revenue from the new businesses is expected to account for 50 per cent of the company’s total revenue in the next five years. Currently the satellite service business contributes around 80 per cent revenue.
Among the new business it started exploring last year was providing satellite service to serve as a communications platform for those in the maritime business such as shippers and cruises.
Meanwhile, Thaicom recently shelved the planned Thaicom 9 satellite, due to lack of commercial feasibility. Paiboon added that as of now, until the end of the Thaicom concession in 2021, the company is unlikely to launch a new satellite.
Currently Thaicom operates Thaicom 4 broadband satellite (which is better known as IPSTAR), Thaicom 5 and 6 broadcasting satellites under the concession of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. It also operates Thaicom 7 and 8 broadcasting satellites under the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)’s licensing regime.
The ministry and Thaicom has been engaged in the arbitration dispute as the ministry views that the Thaicom 7 and 8 satellites are under its concession and should be returned.
The regulatory haze had prompted Thaicom to delay the planned Thaicom 9 satellite, which caused prospective major customer Japanese telecommunications giant Softbank to cancel its plan to use this satellite last April.
Softbank, which uses 1.5 gigabytes capacity on the IPSTAR satellite, had wanted to switch over to Thaicom 9 after the former’s concession ended. It had even committed to use Thaicom 9’s capacity of 30 per cent throughout the satellite’s lifespan. Paiboon added that the company has also kept an eye on current technology trends from Artificial Intelligence to Internet of Things and even cryptocurrency to see if they can be its new business opportunities in the future.
He added that the satellite business would not entirely die.