CAT Telecom Plc plans to spend about Bt100 million to expand the in-building coverage of its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x broadband cellular network in provinces of high potential.

CAT chief financial officer Jirayut Rungsrithong said the company would ask for its board's approval of the investment plan late this week.

"We'll expand the in-building network in nine to 12 provinces where there is a high potential to tap a greater number of high-speed data users. The investment is expected to be about Bt100 million," he said, adding that part of the investment would be expended on network maintenance and operating costs, including a plan to import CDMA handsets next month.

Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei Technologies is rolling out another 800 CDMA base stations for CAT in 51 provinces after having recently finished the first phase of 800 base stations in the same area. The total cost of rolling out 1,600 base stations will be Bt7.2 billion. After completion, the network can serve 2.4 million customers.

Jirayut said CDMA service had a high potential, because it could offer fast speed for data transmission.

CAT is still in talks with Hutchison-CAT to market the CDMA service jointly via their two separate CDMA networks across the country.

Hutchison-CAT is a joint venture of CAT and Hong Kong telecom firm Hutchison Telecom. The company has marketed the CDMA cellular service for CAT on an existing network in 25 provinces, which it has leased from BFKT, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hutchison Telecom.

Currently, Hutchison-CAT has about 750,000 subscribers.

Jirayut said Hutchison-CAT had already generated Bt3 billion in revenues for CAT. Under the marketing deal CAT granted to Hutchison-CAT, the latter will contribute a total of Bt7.9 billion to the state agency during the entire 15-year contract period.

CAT granted the deal to Hutchison-CAT in 2000 before the company started the service in 2003.

In a related matter, Jirayut said the CAT board recently asked CAT to prepare to consult with the Council of State about whether the CDMA marketing deal CAT awarded to Hutchison-CAT was in line with regulations covering state-private investment.

Recently, one CAT board member maintained that the deal violated such regulations. The Auditor-General's Office is also investigating the case.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

Phuket