90% cut in regional call rates

Sep 06, 2010
Bangkok Post

UBON RATCHATHANI : Advanced Info Service (AIS) has joined with Mfone of Cambodia and Lao Telecom of Laos to cut mobile airtime rates by up to 90% for their prepaid customers making calls among the three countries at local rates.

Announcing the new agreement, from left: Adisai Soonthornratanarak, CEO of Mfone; Thansamay Kommasith, director-general of Lao Telecommunication; and Somchai Lertsutiwong, executive vice-president for marketing of AIS

The co-operation involves international roaming agreements instead of an overseas-rate platform. Customers of the AIS's One-2-Call, Mfone and Lao Telecom can buy Fung Khong Sim cards in their home countries. The operators will charge customers travelling in the three countries at six baht per minute. An SMS is also six baht.

Previously, calls between Thailand and Cambodia cost as much as 90 baht per minute while calls to Laos were 30 baht a minute.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, executive vice-president for marketing of AIS, said the alliance was in line with parent Shin Corp's policy to partner with other subsidiaries to develop value-added services. Thaicom Plc, Shin's satellite unit, has a 49% shareholding stake in Lao Telecom with 51% held by the Laotian government.

Even though Thailand's mobile-phone penetration now reached 106%, he said the penetration rate of the three major mobile operators _ AIS, DTAC and True Move _ in the northeastern provinces was only 55%.

More than 100,000 Thai businesspeople and tourists travel to Cambodia and Laos each year.

Meanwhile, Lao Telecom and Mfone suggested it was time for Thailand to have 3G wireless broadband services to bring foreign investment into the country and improve mobile internet access and data usage for young customers and businesspeople.

Lao and Cambodia began offering 3G services almost two years ago, even though the mobile penetration rate in Laos is only 58% of the population of 7 million with four operators.

Lao Telecom has 1.4 million subscribers, a 52% market share, earning revenue of US$140 million, said Thansamay Kommasith, director-general.

The company now has 30,000 3G customers and expects to reach 100,000 by year-end. It invested $6 million in its 3G network and paid $2 million in spectrum fees last year to the government.

Adisai Soonthornratanarak, the CEO of Mfone, said 3G had transformed competition in the mobile market in Cambodia from a focus on price to a focus on content offerings.

Mfone has 800,000 customers, behind Mobitel and Viettel, out of nine operators. Cambodia has 3.5 million mobile users out of a population of 15 million.