Samart to spend B1bn on digital

Samart to spend B1bn on digital

Samart Corporation announced plans to spend 1 billion baht on the construction of network infrastructure for digital television systems to capitalise on the upcoming digital broadcasting service.

Watchai: Will start with free TV channels

The move by the country's leading communications equipment maker is aimed at seeking a new lucrative revenue stream and reducing its reliance on telecom service revenue.

President Watchai Vilailuck said next month Samart will apply for a licence to provide rental network service for a digital TV system with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) once it issues the licences.

The investment will go toward building uplink and downlink for satellite transmission and fibre optic network.

"We are in talks with some free TV channels who want to rent our digital network," he said, adding that a conclusion is expected soon.

Mr Watchai said free TV operators will be Samart's target clients for the first segment as they saw no need to build their own network infrastructure due to its large investment requirement.

But pay-TV operators would be the company's customers in the long term.

Mr Watchai said Samart has no plan to enter into a digital content market, but the company would take part with some local content developers to provide digital content service.

The NBTC's broadcasting committee approved a 2012-16 roadmap for the broadcasting industry in the digital era.

Under the roadmap, the NBTC will issue infrastructure licences to companies in October and grant licences for providing digital TV service to the general public in December.

Licences for commercial digital TV service will be issued next August, while community service licences are scheduled for December 2013.

The NBTC's spectrum draft plan says the regulator will begin the digital switch-over within four years, with a complete switch by 80% of households in urban areas expected to take five years.

The switch-over of all households to digital TV is expected to take 10 years.

Mr Watchai also said Samart expects to conclude a deal to purchase a local power plant next month. The strategic move is also aimed at creating a new fixed revenue stream.

He said Samart hopes to win a contract of TOT Plc to build the second phase of the state enterprise's 3G network expansion, after the company secured the contract to construct a 3G network for the first phase.

The board of TOT recently approved a subsidiary of Samart to become a major mobile virtual network operator for the state enterprise's 3G wireless broadband service.

Under the five-year agreement, I-Mobile Plus will have the exclusive right to 40% of the state's 3G network capacity to be resold to end-users under TOT's new 3G business model. The contract will be reviewed every two years.

However, the contract will need new approval by a new TOT board, as seven directors resigned from the TOT board on Monday.

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