CAT Telecom

CAT Telecom yesterday officially debuted its prepaid service on its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x cellular system, boasting the lowest international-call rate of 90 satang a minute to major destinations.

Chief finance officer Jirayuth Rungsrithong said the offer reflected CAT's business synergy, as its businesses include both the international-call and the CDMA services.

CAT operates its own CDMA network in 51 provinces, while Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia operates a separate CDMA network in 25 provinces.

Hutch is a 75:25 joint venture between Hong Kong telecom giant Hutchison Telecom and CAT. It has leased the network of BFKT, which is wholly owned by Hutchison Telecom, to provide the service.

Jirayuth said CAT's prepaid service targeted 25,000 new subscribers a month to add to the existing 50,000 subscribers it acquired during the pre-launch of the prepaid service early this month.

Its CDMA post-paid service now has 130,000 subscribers.

"In all, we expect to have 200,000 subscribers this year, rising to 500,000 next year," he said.

 CAT will spend about Bt3 billion on phase 3 of its CDMA network expansion next year, which will feature the installation of 500 base stations. It is in the tender process to expand the network in the second phase, to increase the base station number to 2,000, from 1,600 at present.

Jirayuth said CAT's CDMA service projected revenue of Bt600 million this year and Bt2.5 billion next year. "Our service is popular in Phuket, where people use it for wireless data services," he said.

 Hutch is expected to post revenue of Bt5 billion this year, of which 20 per cent will be paid to CAT under a marketing agreement.