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Published on July 16, 2007

Vikrom Sripataks said the 17-year-old company has to do away with its old image and bureaucratic working style in order to increase its competitiveness.

"You'll see soon that AIS looks younger and much more colourful in terms of working style and service offerings," said Vikrom, 55, while keeping further details to himself.

The largest cellular operator has about 7,000 staff and more than 20 million subscribers.

Those who are close to him know that Vikrom, 55, has flair and creative ideas. But Vikrom said he would not do a rap dance on stage when AIS launches new products or campaigns.

Vikrom assumed his CEO post on July 1. He previously worked as the AIS chief technology officer. He was aware of his promotion six months before the official announcement.

The engineering veteran said he was tipped for the top post because of his insight into the company's operations and history, given that he was its second employee. This makes him fit for the job to help AIS deal with present external influences, such as political factors.

"Initially our focus was on the network rollout and then expanding to service offerings. Now you have to take some external factors into consideration as well," he said.

AIS is the flagship of Shin Corp, founded by the family of the ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which disposed of its 49-per-cent stake in Shin to a group led by the Singapore state firm Temasek Holdings last year. The deal triggered street protests by those who regarded the deal as handing national assets such as the satellite and mobile concessions of Shin to a foreign entity.

Vikrom said another priority was exploring new wireless and wire-line opportunities for the AIS group, which already offers services from broadband Internet to overseas call services.

Its broadband Internet provider, Advanced Datanetwork Communication, is interested in offering WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) broadband wireless, but the National Telecommunications Commis-sion has yet to allocate a WiMax licence to anyone.

Vikrom's network knowledge is also beyond question. While he was with Ericsson Thailand he was involved in building the analogue NMT 470 cellular network for TOT. When at AIS, he oversaw its network rollout from the beginning, from the previous analogue NMT 900 network to the present digital GSM network.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation