AIS in Standby Mode, Investing Cautiously

By Srisamorn Phoosuphanusorn, Bangkok Post, Thailand

Mar. 9–Advanced Info Service (AIS) has scaled down its investment this year amid rising political uncertainty to avoid becoming a target of any further attacks on its parent, Shin Corp, and its Singaporean shareholders.

The country’s largest cellular operator had set aside a standby investment budget of 20 billion baht this year to meet any emergency need such as network expansion, said president Wichian Mektrakarn.

It also plans to shift its focus to mobile Internet service this year in an effort to offset shrinking voice revenue.

“AIS will suspend all business activities that could be perceived as breaching contracts and the Telecom Business Law this year,” said Mr Wichian.

A case in point, he noted, was the interconnection charge, for which the first billing cycle was supposed to have been settled with second-ranked DTAC and third-ranked True Move last month. AIS is now holding bill collections, pending a clear decision by the Administrative Court on the unresolved access-charge dispute.

DTAC and True Move sued TOT Plc after the state telecom enterprise threatened to ban their three million new numbers from using its fixed-line network. TOT said the move was in response to the unilateral decisions by both companies to stop paying access charges since Nov 17.

Mr Wichian also said that AIS had prepared several courses of action to cope with the eventual outcomes of the crises it currently faced, whether they were concession amendments or findings about the nominee status of some of the Temasek-backed investors in Shin.

He declined to give details but said that if the company’s contract amendments were found to have breached the law, all three major mobile operators would be in the same boat.

In any case, he said AIS would have an advantage as it still had another four years on its concession. By comparison, DTAC would have lost its right since last year and True Move would have had nothing.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, vice-president for the wireless service arm of AIS, meanwhile, said the company was broadening its mobile Internet market this year, in particular handsets with the Symbian operating system.

The company plans to spend one billion baht expanding its Edge network nationwide this year, with the aim of increasing the number of wireless data users.

“The move is aimed at increasing our value-added service revenues, including non-voice service, by 20 percent to 14.4 billion baht this year, up from 12 billion in 2006 and seven billion baht in 2005,” he said.

Mr Somchai said AIS had seven million customers using Symbian phones plus two million subscribers with Edge-capable handsets. Its active GPRS users number four million.

To promote the Edge service, AIS yesterday introduced a package, enabling customers to purchase the E620 3G/Edge/GPRS data card at 7,900 baht, and receiving a new SIM card and 50 free hours of Edge service hours per month for six months.

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