Dtac announces network upgrade | Bangkok Post: tech

TELECOMS

Dtac has launched its Apple iPhone 3G and 3G offerings along with the announcement of the completion of a network upgrade that means it is now the first telco to have EDGE in every cellsite nationwide, with top speeds of 120 to 200 Kbps. The telco has also launched a new series of price plans that together will see it shift over a hundred thousand iPhones to the Thai market this year.

Chief Commercial Officer Thana Thienachariya, S-VP Pakorn Pannachet and CTO Rolf Marthinusen launch the iPhone on Dtac along with a major nationwide network upgrade.

Meanwhile, Dtac is pushing ahead with 3G on the 850 MHz frequency used widely in Australia and the Americas, and is ready to move as soon as CAT approves the network expansion of a thousand 3G base stations across greater Bangkok and major cities.

Speaking at the press launch, Thana Thienachariya, Chief Commercial Officer at Dtac, said that where there is competition, the consumer benefits and this has already happened when TrueMove announced new, cheaper packages for its own iPhone users.

Even before the official launch, Dtac has 87,775 iPhones connected to its network. The total market, including grey imports, is estimated to be around 200,000 units. Of these, Dtac says that around 160,000 have been unlocked and thus Dtac already has around half the unlocked Thai iPhone market without even officially selling one unit.

Aside from zero percent interest subsidies, Dtac has launched three packages that combine voice, SMS, MMS and data bundles. S has 225 minutes and 100MB while the M and L packages both have unlimited data and, at 580 and 699 baht, respectively, are significantly more than the company's previous unlimited data offering at 999 baht.

The packages are only available to subscribers who purchase a new iPhone from Dtac. However, a new 650 baht a month plan with unlimited data for smart phones users will soon be available for those with an existing iPhone, or any other smart phone. Details of this package were not yet available.

Dtac does not ban tethering (using the phone as a modem on a laptop) with any of its price plans.

Thana said that he expects sales of the iPhone to easily reach into the six-figures (more than a hundred thousand units) and said that Dtac currently take in 11 percent of their revenue from data.

Asked about the open app store initiative that was the focus of attention at this year's Mobile Word Congress, Thana said that it was not dtac's vision to compete with Apple's huge store and besides, the market in Thailand is far too much of a niche market with a small size and difficulty in enabling payment.

There is no lock-in and he hopes people will stay with Dtac's better service after buying the phone. He said that there is no point in locking down phones as Hutch tried it and that did not work for them. Jailbreaking the iPhone is not encouraged, but not prohibited.

Thana predicted that the delay in 3G will mean that 2010 will be the year of the smart phone with more and more smart phones consuming data in an always-on fashion hitting the market.

Rolf Marthinusen, Dtac Chief Technical Officer, said that today's launch completes a series of firsts for Dtac. It was the first in Thailand to launch GPRS in 2001, ahead of many European networks, the first Thai telco launch EDGE in 2003 and in 2004, the first to have a dedicated data channel to avoid network congestion as the GSM specification always prioritises for voice.

In 2009, Dtac put in a dedicated Internet connection for international access starting with 700 Kbps. In one year, that 700 Kbps has exploded to over 2 Gbps and the CTO says he expects international data bandwidth from its network to hit between 3 to 3.5 GBPS by year's end.

As for the EDGE network, the full upgrade will be completed in April and they currently have around 15 percent spare capacity. That said, it was noted that it is easy to add capacity and transponders to existing cells as the most expensive and time consuming part was the base station itself.

Marthinusen also said that he was putting the finishing touches on a new state of the art operations centre that can help diagnose and monitor quality for every single customer rather than just look at the core network and base stations.

Pakorn Pannachet, Senior Vice-President for Value Added Services, explained how Apple iStudio shops will now be selling Dtac SIMs and contracts alongside their iPhones and how 150 dedicated staff will assist users so that they will at least leave the shop able to make calls and send and receive email.