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TECHNOLOGY
SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN
True Move, the country's third largest mobile operator, is introducing a series of mobile internet convergence packages by integrating fixed-broadband WiFi to go on mobile phones on top of existing Edge and General Packet Radio Access (GPRS) systems. Touted as the first of their kind in Thailand, the packages come with three tariff plans. True Move prepaid and postpaid customers can have unlimited internet access through WiFi, Edge and GPRS nationwide at 20 baht a day or 450 baht a month, or they can choose Edge and GPRS services for 10 baht a day or 250 baht a month, or postpaid subscribers can choose unlimited calls and online services for 299 baht per month.
True Corp, True Move's parent, currently charges customers 90 baht per hour for its WiFi service with 15,000 locations nationwide.
''The move marks the start of our strategy shift from voice-based to wireless data communications services,'' said Suphakit Vuntanadit, director of marketing and customer experience management of True Move. ''It will also boost the number of WiFi users and traffic volume.''
He said the local voice market was almost saturated while the non-voice market grew 15% with a value of 15 billion baht last year.
True Move earned 2.5 billion baht in non-voice revenue last year, representing around 12% of its total revenue. Of the total, 15% came from GPRS and Edge with the rest from SMS and ringtone services.
Piroon Paireepairit, director for multimedia services content and marketing, said True Move expected to attract at least one million customers with the new packages and increase its WiFi traffic by 50%.
True currently has 50,000 WiFi users. True Move has two million Edge and GPRS customers.
As of December 2007, True Move had 12 million subscribers, of whom 700,000 were postpaid.
Mr Piroon said True Move expected its non-voice revenue to grow by 15% in 2008, fuelled by WiFi bundled services.
Despite this growth, True Move missed its new subscriber target in the first quarter due to a sluggish economy. It is still confident it can add 33% more customers this year.
True Move added just over 300,000 new customers in the first quarter out of a total of almost two million new subscribers in the market.
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