AIS offers customers better TV
An AIS presenter shows the ROK TV service.
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Advanced Info Service (AIS) has teamed up with UK-based mobile-phone entertainment and technologies developer ROK TV to introduce a new TV-on-mobile service yesterday, aiming to boost the data consumption of its subscribers.
Unlike its existing service, the ROK TV service offers over 20 channels with smoother viewing and better visual and audio quality, thanks to ROK TV's data compression, said AIS executive vice president Somchai Lertsuttiwong. However, initially only a limited number of mobile-phone models can support the service, which is provided via AIS broadband cellular networks, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution (EDGE). The leading cellular operator has around two million active GPRS and EDGE users out of more than 12 million subscribers. Downloading data via either of the networks costs Bt1 per minute. The available ROK TV channels include free ones such as GSM Channel, TITV and National Channel, along with monthly pay channels such as Fox News, for which the costs vary from Bt5 to Bt20 per channel. The existing AIS TV-on-mobile service, which was launched in 2003, has provided only free TV channels. Titipong Khiewpaisal, AIS vice president for marketing, said that ROK TV was expected to have 200,000 viewers by the end of this year, when the number of available channels should reach 40.
Sirivish Toomgum The Nation
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