Samart i-Mobile Plc (SIM) and its shareholder Telekom Malaysia plan to jointly provide a so-called mobile virtual network service in seven regional countries, aiming to serve frequent inter-region travellers.

The mobile virtual network company will lease telecom operators' networks to provide the cellular service.

Under the plan, SIM's mobile virtual network service will offer low overseas call rates between seven countries in the Telekom Malaysia footprint: Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, the Philippines and Bangladesh.

SIM, in which Telekom Malaysia owns 24 per cent, is in talks with cellular operators in the seven countries to jointly provide the service, and discussions are expected to be wrapped up by the end of this year.

SIM executive vice president Watchai Vilailuck said that SIM expects to invest around Bt100 million on the service development, which would be its new main revenue source, beside its existing regional handset sales business.

SIM has already teamed up with Telekom Malaysia's cellular subsidiary, Cellcom, to set up Blue Cube shops in the region, where virtual mobile network service customers can subscribe to the service and pay bills.

The number of SIM handset shops and Blue Cube shops in the region is expected to reach 600 this year.

Currently SIM has 380 shops in Thailand, 12 in Cambodia, nine in Laos, and five in Malaysia.

Watchai said that in Thailand SIM has to apply for a mobile virtual network service licence from the National Telecommunications Commission.

A telecom industry source said that SIM is interested in leasing the network of the second largest cellular operator in Thailand, Total Access Communication (DTAC), to provide the mobile virtual network service.

Meanwhile, SIM has awarded a contract to local company Cerebrum to design its i-Mobile house-brand handsets.

SIM expects to sell 3.2 million handsets across the region this year, of which 2.2 million are expected to be the i-Mobile brand. In the first half of this year, it sold one million handsets. Total handset sales in the region are expected to be 4 million units next year.

SIM's share price closed at 19.50 yesterday, up from 18.80.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation