wowpow
April 29th, 2006, 19:02
Bangkok Post 27th April 2006
Low mobile rates mean heavy traffic. Urgent talks held about new gateways SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN
The price war among mobile phone operators has resulted in heavy traffic congestion and rising complaints of busy signals and dropped calls. Successful connection rates for customers, typically at 90%, have fallen sharply for all cellular operators in recent weeks. The congestion problem has prompted urgent talks among the three major mobile operators _ Advanced Info Service (AIS), DTAC and True Move _ about new investment in direct interconnection gateways.
Mobile-phone users have been experiencing connection difficulties since mid-April, as a result of heavy call traffic sparked by a new round of price wars led by AIS's introduction of record-low ''buffet'' tariffs. Wichien Mektrakarn, executive vice-president for operations of market leader AIS, said that complete-call rates for AIS customers within its network had fallen to only 25%, compared with 50% in March. The rate for successful connections has also decreased significantly, particularly during the peak period between 4pm and 10pm, compared with the usual rate of 90%. ''We are monitoring the situation to address the problem. A formal figure will be released by the end of this month,'' he said.
Mr Wichien said AIS was accelerating its network capacity expansion plan, worth 16 billion baht this year, to ease rising traffic calls and allow smooth and successful connections for customers. AIS plans to spend eight billion baht in the first half of this year on network expansion, and an additional eight billion baht in the second half, upgrading its third-generation (3G) network and maintaining its 2G network. ''We are ready to invest more to increase network capacity anytime if necessary, as our major shareholder [Temasek Holdings of Singapore] has already given us the green light,'' Mr Wichien said.
Sigve Brekke, the chief executive officer of second-ranked DTAC, said the company was also seeing an increase of at least 30% in calling traffic volume within its network this month. Cross-connecting network access was also difficult to reach nationwide, Mr Brekke said. However, Mr Brekke said the congestion situation was still far from last year's crisis, when the rate for calls successfully made by DTAC customers to AIS users fell to as low as 4%. He said DTAC was involved in talks with AIS and True Move for further expansion of direct interconnection gateways to ease the problem and accommodate rising mobile traffic.
''Discussions are well underway among the three operators. Tens of millions of baht each would be required for the new investment, with expansion works starting soon,'' said Mr Brekke.
Low mobile rates mean heavy traffic. Urgent talks held about new gateways SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN
The price war among mobile phone operators has resulted in heavy traffic congestion and rising complaints of busy signals and dropped calls. Successful connection rates for customers, typically at 90%, have fallen sharply for all cellular operators in recent weeks. The congestion problem has prompted urgent talks among the three major mobile operators _ Advanced Info Service (AIS), DTAC and True Move _ about new investment in direct interconnection gateways.
Mobile-phone users have been experiencing connection difficulties since mid-April, as a result of heavy call traffic sparked by a new round of price wars led by AIS's introduction of record-low ''buffet'' tariffs. Wichien Mektrakarn, executive vice-president for operations of market leader AIS, said that complete-call rates for AIS customers within its network had fallen to only 25%, compared with 50% in March. The rate for successful connections has also decreased significantly, particularly during the peak period between 4pm and 10pm, compared with the usual rate of 90%. ''We are monitoring the situation to address the problem. A formal figure will be released by the end of this month,'' he said.
Mr Wichien said AIS was accelerating its network capacity expansion plan, worth 16 billion baht this year, to ease rising traffic calls and allow smooth and successful connections for customers. AIS plans to spend eight billion baht in the first half of this year on network expansion, and an additional eight billion baht in the second half, upgrading its third-generation (3G) network and maintaining its 2G network. ''We are ready to invest more to increase network capacity anytime if necessary, as our major shareholder [Temasek Holdings of Singapore] has already given us the green light,'' Mr Wichien said.
Sigve Brekke, the chief executive officer of second-ranked DTAC, said the company was also seeing an increase of at least 30% in calling traffic volume within its network this month. Cross-connecting network access was also difficult to reach nationwide, Mr Brekke said. However, Mr Brekke said the congestion situation was still far from last year's crisis, when the rate for calls successfully made by DTAC customers to AIS users fell to as low as 4%. He said DTAC was involved in talks with AIS and True Move for further expansion of direct interconnection gateways to ease the problem and accommodate rising mobile traffic.
''Discussions are well underway among the three operators. Tens of millions of baht each would be required for the new investment, with expansion works starting soon,'' said Mr Brekke.