TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Udom Puasakul will likely be named TOT Plc's new chairman this week, succeeding Panthep Chamrasromran, says the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry.

Mr Udom will leave his post as director-general of the Public Works and Town & Country Planning Department.

Gp Capt Anudith Nakornthap, the ICT minister, said a list of the eight new TOT directors including Mr Udom will soon be released by the Finance Ministry, the state telecom enterprise's main shareholder.

The new board members, mainly from academia, will be tasked with solving many critical problems at TOT including raising capital and expanding third-generation (3G) network coverage into the second phase.

Gp Capt Anudith said it is not necessary for the TOT chairman to have direct telecommunications experience.

Management and administrative skills are more important, he said.

On Sept 17, Mr Panthep and seven other members resigned from the TOT board.

A source who asked not to be named said Gp Capt Anudith travelled to Singapore last weekend to receive ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's approval of the new TOT board members.

Mr Udom was selected under a quota allotted to Yaowapa Wongsawat, a former MP under the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party.

Ms Yaowapa is a younger sister of Mr Thaksin and the wife of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat.

Gp Capt Anudith is also close to Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, a founder and deputy leader of the Thai Rak Thai Party, the first incarnation of the present Pheu Thai Party.

In another development, Somchit Terachutikul, the executive vice-president for marketing, expressed hope that TOT's fixed and wireless broadband service will become its flagship business, contributing most of the company's revenue by 2015.

"Under our new convergence strategy, we'll offer bundled services for our fixed-line and wireless broadband," she said, adding that TOT plans to encourage people to use its landline telephone service at home and WiFi and 3G on the move.

TOT is also upgrading its broadband speed to 10 Mbps from 7 Mbps.

Major broadband service providers True Corporation and 3BB recently upgraded their broadband speeds at no additional charge.

Mrs Somchit said the state enterprise is spending 50 million baht on a marketing campaign concerning the speed upgrade.

"We plan to attract some 200,000 customers, bringing our total to 1.5 billion broadband users," she said.

The country's fixed-line broadband market will grow by an estimated 10-15% this year for a total of 4 million household users out of 22 million households in the country.