TELECOMMUNICATIONS
CAT new president focuses on CDMA
- Published: 30/06/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Business
CAT Telecom's new president Jirayuth Roongsrithong will prioritise taking over Hutchison's CDMA network in the central provinces and integrating it into a single national CDMA network.
He will also seek a foreign strategic partner to run and deliver third-generation or 3G mobile phone service.
Mr Jirayuth, who was appointed by the CAT board last week, said taking over the CDMA network from Hutchison is his urgent task for this year.
The network belongs to Hutchison's wholly owed subsidiary BFKT but is leased to Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia - better known as Hutch - a joint venture between CAT Telecom and Hutchison to provide Hutch mobile phone services.
The Hutch network covers 25 central provinces including Bangkok, while CAT's nationwide CDMA network covers 51 provinces.
The two networks would be integrated into a single CDMA network to create more value, said Mr Jirayuth
CAT's board had earlier recommended taking over Hutchison's network but CAT has yet to conclude a deal with Hong Kong-based Hutchison.
CAT wants to manage the entire CDMA network to make it competitive with other operators in providing 3G services, said Mr Jirayuth.
He added that CAT wants a foreign partner to bid for the 3G bandwidth.
But CAT could shift from CDMA to new technology because 70% of its investment is in infrastructure like towers and transmitters that can be easily adapted for use with other technologies.
"I am not saying that we have to stick to CDMA technology definitely. If we assess that other technology offers better value, we are ready to migrate," he said.
One condition for taking over Hutchison's network is that Hutchison upgrades its current CDMA 1X platform to that of CAT's CDMA 1X EV-DO so CAT would not have to invest time and money in upgrading, he said.
He declined to specify the cost of the takeover - which has been estimated at about 6 billion baht - but said CAT has sufficient money.
CAT's current CDMA 1X EV-DO network was constructed by Huawei Technologies for 7.2 billion baht.
About the author
- Writer: KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA
