Cellphone driving ban a big boost for bluetooth headsets

The market for the Bluetooth devices could grow three to five times from about 100,000 units per month at present, That Chaowanasatier, managing director of Wireless Advance System (WAS), the sole importer of South Korea's G-Net mobile phones, said yesterday.

Sithisak Intaraprasit, assistant executive vice president of handset distributor and retailer International Engineering (IEC), said the value of Bluetooth headsets was expected to increase 100 per cent with the new law. Bluetooth headsets have made up 10 per cent of the cellphone accessory market worth Bt3 billion per year. Violators will face fines of Bt400-Bt1,000.

Some 50 million people use mobile phones.

WAS and IEC will join with Highway Police nationwide to launch an educational campaign about the law and distribute pamphlets promoting the use of hands-free headsets on the road. The joint campaign will run for 45-60 days.

The pamphlets will include discount coupons for some models of G-Net Bluetooth headsets. Initially about 100,000 coupons will be distributed, Sithisak said.

IEC targets sales of about 1 million mobile phones worth about Bt6 billion this year, while WAS hopes to move about 1 million G-Net mobile phones.

That said WAS has hardly bothered with importing costly models, knowing that people prefer the cheaper ones in these times of economic difficulty.

WAS is focusing on TV mobile-phone sales. Soon it will introduce the G-Net 218 with dual mobile-phone modes of GSM and Code Division Multiple Access, and the G-Net G522C, which features GSM and CDMA systems as well as TV reception.