After providing a trial service for 18 months, state telecom enterprise TOT and the largest mobile operator, Advanced Info Service (AIS), finally signed an official partnership contract yesterday for commercial use of TOT's 2100-megahertz spectrum capacity, with TOT being paid 3.9 billion baht a year.
TOT plans to rebrand its mobile business on the 2100MHz spectrum from "TOT 3G" to "TOT Mobile" by June, bundling package offers for mobile and fixed broadband service.
TOT president Monchai Noosong said the enterprise wants to increase its mobile subscriber base from 100,000 users to 3 million by 2020.
The enterprise is pinning its hopes on boosting the number of mobile subscribers via the government's welfare scheme for low-income earners, with TOT providing 1 million low-cost SIMs this year to the project's recipients.
TOT 3G has been used since 2011 but is no longer sufficient for the present mobile service ecosystem. The partnership provides the perfect time to rebrand, ensuring that the collaboration will continue until 2025, Mr Monchai said.
TOT selected AIS as its partner for its 2100MHz spectrum in July 2015.
TOT and AIS began a trial run for providing mobile service on the spectrum in July 2016, as the two parties had to wait for approval from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
Despite providing service on a trial basis, the deal generated 10 billion baht per year for TOT through three agreements: 3.6 billion baht a year for telecom tower rental fees paid by AIS; 3.9 billion for using TOT's 2100MHz spectrum capacity; and 2 billion for rental fees of TOT's 2G equipment.
The OAG last November approved details of the deal, allowing the two parties to sign an official contract for providing commercial service on the 2100MHz spectrum.
Mr Monchai said the signing ceremony for the contract yesterday was for one of three agreements between AIS and TOT.
The official contract lets AIS use 80% of TOT's 2100MHz capacity for network roaming. Meanwhile, TOT can use the remaining portion for its own business.
TOT will also be able to use 16,000 base stations from AIS's 2100MHz network nationwide to provide telecom service.
Mr Monchai said TOT and AIS plan to sign the other two commercial contracts by the end of this year.