True Corp not trawling yet for a 3G-bid sugar daddy

He said True Corp would seriously think about a possible strategic partnership once it had secured the licence.

The National Telecommunications Commission intends to auction four 3G-spectrum licences in the third quarter. The regulatory body has yet to finalise the minimum bid, but this is expected to be US$100 million (Bt3.6 billion) per licence.

Currently True Corp's cellular flagship, True Move, is the only private cellular operator without a foreign strategic partner.

The largest cellular operator, Advanced Info Service, has leading regional telecom operator Singapore Telecom as its strategic partner, and the second largest cellular operator, Total Access Communication, has Norway's telecom giant Telenor.

True's businesses range from fixed lines and cellular service to broadband Internet and pay TV.

It intends to raise all the Bt19 billion capital this year through a rights offering to strengthen its balance sheet and pursue future growth opportunities such as 3G.

The offering of 10 billion shares worth Bt1.95 apiece last month saw existing shareholders subscribing to 3,272,885,226 shares, which raised approximately Bt6.38 billion. True Corp will use the remainder to achieve its recapitalisation goal.

True Corp is also focusing on cost reduction in line with the economic downturn.

Cost reduction will unavoidably affect its Plook Panya ("Planting Wisdom") social-responsibility programme, which features televisions, satellite dishes and True Visions educational channels for rural elementary schools.

The company has cut back the number of schools it plans to provide with dishes and educational channels this year to 1,000 from the planned 1,200. There are 2,000 schools across the country in the project.