Eight private companies have won the bids to supply optical fibre cable and broadband-related equipment to TOT Plc for the installation of the national broadband network across the country.
The total price of the eight bids was 3.2 billion baht, or 25% lower than the reserve price of 4.27 billion set by the state telecom enterprise, said TOT president Monchai Noosong.
TOT announced the winning bidders for the project yesterday.
There were 31 tenders submitting bid documents containing both the price proposals and technical proposals to supply fibre-optical cable and broadband equipment to TOT on Feb 10.
There are five key hardware components of the broadband networking system: optical fibre cable (with a reserve price of 2 billion baht), optical line terminals (with a reserve price of 1.4 billion baht), distribution networks (310 million), indoor and outdoor switching systems (286 million), and wireless access points (251 million).
Among the eight winners, three companies won bids for supplying optical fibre cable with a combined price of 1.89 billion baht, 6.8% lower than the reserve price. The three are Consortium of B and K, Fu Yuan Business, and Consortium of Thai Fibre-Optic.
SET-listed Advanced Information Technology (AIT) won a bid to supply optical line terminals to the project with an offer price of 684 million baht, 51% lower than the reserve price.
AIT also offered the lowest bid for supplying indoor and outdoor switching systems at 169 million baht, 41% lower than the reserve price.
SET-listed SVOA Plc won a bid for supplying wireless access points at 240 million baht, 5% below the reserve price.
For distribution network components, there were three winners with a combined price of 239 million baht, 23% below the reserve price. The three winners are Lee Kim Trading, SET-listed Interlink Communication, and Global Maze.
Mr Monchai said TOT expects to sign procurement contracts with the eight winners on March 8. The winners are expected to start supplying fibre-optic cable and equipment to TOT by April.
He said the installation of the national broadband network to cover 24,700 villages across the country is expected to require almost 10 billion baht. The first 3,000 villages are projected to have the broadband network completely installed by May, with the other 21,700 by the end of this year as planned.
The government initially planned to install broadband to cover 40,432 villages in remote areas, with TOT handling 24,700 of them at an investment cost of 15 billion baht and the regulator doing the remainder using the Universal Service Obligation Fund for investment.