Ericsson To Supply 2 New Thai Wireless Operators

29th November 2002 By Komsan Tortermvasana, Bangkok Post, Thailand

Ericsson is proposing application solutions to two new mobile operators, Thai Mobile Co and Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia Co, according to Wichuda Na-songkhla, wireless Internet solutions manager of Ericsson (Thailand).

Thai Mobile Co was co-founded by TOT Corporation and the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT), while Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia is a joint venture of CAT and Hong Kong-based telecom giant Hutchison Telecommunications.

Ms Wichuda said her company had offered Thai Mobile four SMS (short message service) applications based on the 1900-Megahertz GSM technology. While TOT did not have to make additional investments in either software or hardware, it was required to share its SMS revenue with the company.

The company would also offer to sell its CDMA 2000 1X technology, which focuses on data applications, to interested operators without demanding revenue sharing, she said.

While Thai Mobile staged its formal commercial launch yesterday, Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia will be the country's first mobile operator to use CDMA 2000 1X technology in a market dominated by GSM, the most widely used technology in the world.

Ms Wichuda said the applications represented the new focus of Ericsson's Mobility World concept, with both operators and application developers as target customers. Related services will be provided by Sony-Ericsson Co, a joint venture specialising in new handsets.

Ericsson is also expecting a response from TA Orange, another mobile operator, to which Ericsson has already proposed 24 multimedia mobile service (MMS) applications. Ericsson already has sold 40 MMS applications to Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country's largest mobile operator.

Nijira Poonthong, business intelligence and strategic planning manager of Ericsson, said the company currently enjoyed a 100 percent market share of CAT's international switching service and customer care and billing system service. It also has some share of CAT's transmission service.

As well, the company has a 40 percent share in AIS's GSM 900 network service and 100 percent in GPRS core network, mobile internet platform and MMS platform, with T68i mobile phones.

Ericsson (Thailand) also enjoyed a market share of 50 percent in ACT's GSM network, 40 percent in TT&T's network switching and transmission services, 30 percent in the TOT's network switching and DTAC's mobile Internet platform.

Lars Bjorkenor, president of Ericsson (Thailand), said that although the company currently faced difficulties in the global environment, there were some highlights in its third-quarter performance.

"Once we have the cost cuts under control, the company will achieve a result better than expected. Moreover, GSM which is the company's core business still is maintaining growth of about 2 percent. This means that the company manages to continue increasing its market share. As a result, we expect to become profitable again sometime in 2003," Mr Bjorkenor said.

On the local front, he said as network expansion and optimisation were important for operators, Ericsson's total sales had grown by about 20 percent from 2001.

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