The country's second-largest cellular operator, Total Access Communication (DTAC), posted a record high 1.15 million net new subscribers in the first quarter.

The company said the figure was the highest since its establishment in 1991. It recorded 367,746 net new users in the previous quarter and 320,457 in the first quarter last year.

Market leader Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) brought in 225,000 net new subscribers in the first quarter, versus 441,379 for the third-largest player True Move.

DTAC's net earnings in the quarter were Bt1.257 billion, decreasing by 16 per cent on a quarterly basis, due to rising regulatory and marketing expenses, but increasing by 22 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Its quarterly revenue stood at Bt12.1 billion, up 6.9 per cent on the quarter and 15 per cent on the year.

DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said the campaigns early this year by activist groups wanting to boycott AIS products had not significantly affected the subscription base as much as DTAC's continued marketing campaigns and network expansion.

The boycott started after the takeover of AIS parent Shin Corp by the Singapore state investment arm Temasek Holdings in January. Activist groups regarded the transaction as amounting to a sale of national assets to foreigners.

Brekke believes DTAC's performance in the second quarter will likely be no better than the first due to the looming strong price war, which could affect sales.

AIS vice president Titipong Khiewpaisal said his company would not focus on price cutting in the second quarter but would offer appropriate call rates and improve network service quality.

"We want to see long-term growth," he said.

Brekke said that out of DTAC's 972,759 net new prepaid subscribers in the first quarter, about 40 per cent were first-time users and the remainder from other networks.

DTAC chief customer officer Sunti Medhavikul estimated that only 20,000 post-paid subscribers of AIS switched to DTAC during the quarter.

DTAC has spent Bt12 billion this year to expand network coverage with an additional 1,500 base stations. The rollout is expected to be completed in October. It hopes its network coverage in the Northeast and South will be on a par with AIS by the end of the year.

DTAC has forecast that there will be five million net new subscribers in the market this year and the penetration rate will reach 70 per cent in 2008, from the present 50 per cent. DTAC targets two million new subscribers this year.

"We're very bullish on market growth," Brekke added.

DTAC has about 10 million subscribers, AIS  more than 16.6 million and True Move over 4.9 million.

In a related matter, Brekke said Singapore-listed DTAC was expected to list some shares in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in the third or fourth quarter as part of its dual-listing plan. A source at DTAC said the company wanted to pull out of the Singapore market in order to list all its shares in Thailand if possible.

Meanwhile, DTAC will inform TOT Plc that there is no need to continue paying the access fee to the state agency once the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) puts the interconnection charge regulations into effect.

The NTC is expected to publish the regulations in the next few weeks, requiring all telecom operators to share voice revenue between networks.

CAT Telecom Plc's private cellular concessionaires, including DTAC and True Move, have paid access fees to TOT. AIS has long been exempt from the fee as it holds a TOT concession.

DTAC and True Move want to move from an access fee to an interconnection charge. In the first quarter alone, DTAC paid access fees of Bt2.3 billion out of its regulatory cost of Bt5 billion.

DTAC also plans to stop routing the call traffic of its network via that of TOT and switch to its existing direct network links with all telecom operators in order to avoid paying a double interconnection charge. 

Sirivish Toomgum

The Nation