Published on January 18, 2006
Norway’s leading telecom firm, Telenor, is ready to compete with any competitors in Thailand’s telecom sector regardless of a change in their major shareholders.
Telenor group’s president and chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas yesterday declined to comment when asked by the press if Telenor and its Thai mobile phone arm, Total Access Communication (DTAC), could compete with Temasek Holdings, which is allegedly discussing an eminent takeover of Shin Corp Plc.
He added that the group was ready to compete with any rival. Local newspapers have been reporting that Temasek, Singapore’s state investment arm, would acquire 49.61 per cent of Shin, the parent company of leading Thai mobile-phone operator Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) and majority-owned by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s family. AIS has more than 16 million subscribers, while DTAC has more than 8 million. TA Orange has more than 4 million. “DTAC can compete with anyone and will concentrate on DTAC’s way,” Baksaas said yesterday during a three-day visit to Thailand. He added that DTAC’s advantage was it could learn from Telenor’s existing businesses worldwide and vice versa in developing new services. Baksaas said DTAC’s spending on network expansion and network quality improvement was key to remaining competitive. DTAC recently announced a Bt12-billion network expansion this year. Telenor has invested around Bt42 billion in Ucom and DTAC since its entry into Thailand’s telecom market in 2000. DTAC is the second-largest contributor, in terms of revenue and customer base, to Telenor, compared with other Telenor investments around the world. Asked if Telenor was interested in supporting DTAC’s investment in broadband cellular third-generation (3G) technology, he said such technology was not necessary in Thailand at the moment but admitted it would soon become more important here. The National Telecommunications Commission has yet to start drafting 3G licensing terms, pending its study of the technology’s social and economic impact. Sirivish Toomgum The Nation
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