TOT LAUNCH
CDMA service to start by year-end
Public-phone project to have 150,000 numbers managed by state agency
TOT is expected to kick off its nationwide public-telephone service, based on broadband cellular technology, by the end of the year, says senior executive Arsa Satayut. Arsa said yesterday the public phones, based on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x cellular system, would have 150,000 numbers. Early this year, TOT awarded the deal to China's major telecom-equipment supplier, Huawei Technologies, in order to upgrade its ageing NMT 470 cellular network with CDMA technology so it could provide the public-phone service. The total project cost is about Bt900 million. One of the main reasons for the NMT cellular system's unpopularity among consumers is vulnerability to illegal tuning. Arsa said TOT had allowed Huawei to operate 50,000 numbers for public phones in the project for five years, as part of its project payment. He said the state agency had already launched a similar service in Suvarnabhumi Airport. He said if the service debut becomes delayed, it would stem from the rough coordination between the state agency and the National Telecommunications Commission in permitting TOT to import the CDMA equipment. Besides TOT, CAT Telecom and joint venture Hutchison-CAT have deployed a similar CDMA system but for providing cellular service. CDMA technology is the global rival of the predominant GSM technology. Meanwhile, Arsa said TOT would spend Bt200 million to expand its telecom system in Chiang Mai. Part of the investment is to upgrade its cable network and develop "triple-play service", featuring combined voice, broadband-Internet and video-on-demand services. Moreover, it will boost the capacity of the Internet-protocol network link between Bangkok and Chiang Mai to 10 gigabytes per second from the current 622 megabytes. The company will also add another 13,915 fixed-telephone numbers the existing 150,000 in the province. The state agency commands a 70-per-cent market share of the fixed-telephone service in Chiang Mai, where it has 14,000 broadband-Internet users.
Usanee Mongkolporn The Nation Chiang Mai
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