Corporate 3G Disobedience & True Hypocrisy

What a welcome sight arriving in Hua Hin. Huge AIS billboards praising AIS Super 3G with whopping speeds of 7.2 Mbps. Welcome to the future in laid-back Hua Hin. But that future is still the past.

Make no mistake. That’s not the 3G on the 2100 MHz band. It’s AIS’ very own virtual super highway on its 900 MHz GSM band, furthermore available in parts of Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chonburi.

And the speed doesn’t come for free. 1.5 GB set you back 300 baht, 30 GB 1,500 baht. Still, with a government trying to be milking some 40 billion baht from the sale of 3G licenses and no auction in sight for years, Thai phone companies are forced to go their own way.

I’m not sure if I’ll be an early adopter of 3G. The price tag will be steep compared to GPRS EDGE speeds – and those EDGE speeds don’t seem that slow to me anyway. And which phones – beside the iPhone – offer the 3G hardware? The transition won’t come over night.

Especially since investments in GSM networks have long paid off. Hardware infrastructure for each subscriber amounted to a few thousand baht per head. The entry of Chinese hardware players lowered that amount even further.

So do the math how much net profit AIS or DTAC or True is making each month thanks to you. GSM is a cash cow, 3G will alter the game and deal out whole new cards.

Already today AIS’ Super 3G 7.2 Mbps would give you the independence to cancel your landline, tether your computers to whatever 3G phone and become fully wireless.

But first the investments in 3G have to pay off, and pay off quickly for that. But I doubt that the Thai population is ready for 3G. Who needs high-speed data transfers?

But even better, when the old GSM network can deliver speeds of 7.2 Mbps, who needs 3G?!

And how many of the fancy iPhone and BlackBerry users here know how to send an email with their phones? Maybe there’s a reason that Thailand hasn’t seen the light of 3G to this day. What was introduced in Europe’s mass market in March 2003, remains a vision in Thailand. And a single year is already an eternity in terms of improving the spectral efficiencies to gain far greater bandwiths.

But not only that there may not be a market for 3G. Under the pretext of nationalist rhetoric, covering up outright hypocrisy, the Thai phone operator of all things that seems to be predestined to offer a 3G network is trying everything to delay a 3G license auction.

You’d assume that True with its exclusive iPhone deal would be the natural 3G provider. But True Corp prefers to dredge up the nationalism card to support its bid rivals for incompetence.

An Andrew Roberts point out in Post Bag:

News reports on the imminent 3G services bidding war reveals both nationalist rhetoric and outright hypocrisy on behalf of one of the protagonists that warrants further examination.

For True Corp to dredge up the nationalism card to support its bid rivals ”New” Coke in the 80s for incompetence. To bring ”principle” into a campaign is a sound strategy, and waving the flag of ”protecting national assets” is a popular sound bite in Thailand, but wholly inappropriate in this case.

True owns an English-language satellite TV station and has an exclusive on a phone heavily reliant on 3G with considerable appeal to expats – surely this is a dangerous game. For such a message to delay the auction (and evidently sway a minister) is an indictment of the values of policy-makers and the decision-making process as a whole.

However ill-considered the message, True’s hypocrisy is somewhat more galling. True’s owners, CP, have made foreign partners a big part of their business here and abroad. Tesco-Lotus is a prime example. Some might say that this store, along with CP’s 7-Eleven, is destroying Thai shopkeepers’ livelihoods. Is this damaging the nation’s assets, an entire sector of Thai society? How much of this profiteering is going back to the UK and bolstering Tesco’s share price?

In True’s previous life as Telecom Asia, you didn’t have to dig too far to find Nynex as their technology partner, without whom True’s telecom business would not exist today.

All in all, True’s strategy seems to be one of desperation; they are way behind AIS and DTAC and have an iPhone exclusive that without 3G struggles to justify its hefty price tag.

The writer hopes that sanity prevails and the auction goes ahead as planned, and that consumers, not vested interests, are for once at the heart of any decision.

But … who needs 3G?!




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October 18, 2009 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Gadgets & Technology, Property & Investment, The Thai Mind 

Comments

8 Responses to “Corporate 3G Disobedience & True Hypocrisy”

  1. Tweets that mention Corporate 3G Disobedience & True Hypocrisy -- Topsy.com on October 18th, 2009 11.16 am

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jon Fernquest, BangkokDan. BangkokDan said: (BLOG) Corporate 3G Disobedience & True Hypocrisy http://bit.ly/10AJJX [...]

  2. Anon on October 18th, 2009 11.40 am

    Thailand needs 3G in 2009 the same way Thailand needed GSM in 1989. Besides, it’s not your cash being invested – if the investments fail in the long run, let the private sector bare that burden. 20 years from now, will some whining bloggers complain that some plucky 3G entrepreneur turned politician got a risk-free license to make money on 2009’s no-brainer 3G auctions? :)

    And besides, do you have any idea how cheap 300 baht ($10) is for 1.5 GB? In the U.S., AT&T charges $60 for unlimited data, but a heavy 3G user like me was never downloading more than 500 MB a month!

  3. BangkokDan on October 18th, 2009 11.53 am

    You must be new to aB.com Anon.

    Do a search, this site has a rich history of deploring Thailand’s backward mobile communication technology.

    But I’d also refuse to pay an outrageous premium for something that don’t really need.

    Mobile TV? Streaming vids? Nice, but again, Super 3G is not 3G.

    If Super 3G can do, why do I need a meanwhile old 3G technology? There’s 4G out there already.

    Once Thailand gets a probably overpriced 3G, other countries have long moved to 4G.

    BangkokDan

  4. Leosia on October 18th, 2009 1.51 pm

    Much as I would have liked 3G some time ago I have to agree. In Thailand consumers are not exactly sophisticated so the long-running campaign by True when advertising the iPhone, “3G + WiFi” – when Thailand doesn’t have 3G – amounts to fraud. As usual here it’s all talk and no action.

    The technology and sophistication of the iPhone (and indeed all Mac products) and BlackBerry is entirely wasted on the average Thai buyer. Similarly, all the telecom providers consistently refer to their “high-speed ADSL” when the connections are usually slower than a dial-up modem because it’s shared with so many users.

    Pathetic.

  5. KV on October 18th, 2009 8.19 pm

    About “needing” 3G, 3G is helpful in providing mobile internet access in city areas to those who do not have money to own computer. The drawback is that 3G is very expensive to spread in countryside due to the short range of the radio waves in the wavelength and need of much more radio stations compared to GSM bandwidths.

    Hence more complete proper telecommunications network is very much favorable but 3G and other 2G+ technologies are very essential part of any national telecom plan and should be fast forwarded.

    If you do not personally need 3G, you should try to think what other people might need or the needs and usages that could be created by the introduction of 3G.

    Reminds me of how many people can’t understand “who needs mobile phone in Thai countryside” when these commenters had no realization of how mobile phone is essential tool for commerce for example in remote locations once the “who needs GSM” networks are in place …

    And for mobile internet use, please refer to statistics from China and Japan for example. Japan, even being developed nation has lead the way in mobile internet usage. You tell Japanese they don’t need 3G?

    “Using a multiple-response questionnaire, the survey showed the number of users who access the Internet with personal computers was the highest at 82.55 million, while the number of people who access it from cell phones was 75.06 million. Those accessing it via a games console or TV was 5.67 million, it said.

    http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/jp.htm”

    You might not need, but if and when the data is cheap, many ppl who do not have their own computers can have an access to information with their mobile phones. For grass roots access to information creates very fast new things and ideas, see for example how Twitter was banned this year in China, and for what reasons.

    For reference:

    http://www.webprochina.com/?p=237

  6. John on October 19th, 2009 9.36 am

    “But … who needs 3G?!”

    I guess your write that stupid question just for people to react… :/

    Just think about TV or YouTube videos on your 3G phone: sophisticated or not, Thai consumers will get addicted to it! And that would be just a beginning, before other services start to seduce those consumers.

  7. Laurent on October 22nd, 2009 12.07 pm

    I am afraid there is some sort of misunderstanding here as although AIS is using 900Mhz band for his super 3G service, it is indeed 3G WCDMA and therefore has nothing to do with AIS current 2G GSM technology.

    The following statement: “But even better, when the old GSM network can deliver speeds of 7.2 Mbps, who needs 3G?!”
    Is therefore wrong.

    You needs a 3G phone, actually one supporting 3G WCDMA in the 900 MHz band – which is significantly hard to find – to benefit from AIS Super 3G service.

    (BD: I explicitly said on AIS’ GSM 900 MHz band and therefore making use of current “infrastructure.” Hardware is another thing. But thanks for this important clarifier, AIS support wouldn’t have mentioned a word of that.)

  8. Now More Than Ever: Abhisit’s FCCT Address on January 14th, 2010 10.54 pm

    [...] his government will press ahead with the construction of roads, rail and 3G networks … roads [...]

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