True gateway unit set to tap internet boom

Business News : Monday December 10, 2007

TELECOMMUNICATIONS / BROADBAND

True gateway unit set to tap internet boom

10 million users projected for 2009

SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN

True Internet Gateway Co, the gateway arm of True Corporation, hopes to ride the country's broadband internet boom with business growth in line with the industry average of double-digit growth next year.

But the company acknowledged that revenue would not rise along with the projected growth due to intense competition from more operators, which has resulted in a sharp drop in bandwidth charges.

General manager Anothai Ratanakul said traffic of the internet gateway in Thailand is expected to rise to 30 gigabits per second (Gbps) in 2008, up from 17.3 by the end of this year and 7.6 Gbps in 2006. The market size of internet gateway services would jump to six billion baht next year.

Dr Anothai said True Internet Gateway expected to see double-digit traffic growth next year, with 6.4 Gbps, or a 20% market share.

He said the company was on track to post first-year operating revenue of 500 million baht this year, helped by the local broadband boom. Most of customers are internet service providers (ISPs).

Thailand's broadband penetration has been forecast to grow substantially, with five to 10 million users by 2009 compared with one million by the end of this year.

Dr Anothai said the company planned to spend 50 million baht next year to expand its gateway to Europe after investing 300 million baht installing infrastructure in major cities in Asia and US.

True Internet Gateway plans to seek more peering partners next year to create faster service speeds and improved transit arrangements. It also plans to expand its domestic internet exchange to provide IP-based transit services.

Dr Anothai also urged the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to draft a cyber crime act to encourage ISPs to provide co-operation in gathering customer information. A measure for screening spam mail is also needed.

He said Thailand needed to have a public internet exchange facility to control traffic as a central domestic international internet gateway. He suggested the facility should be operated by a non-profit organisation such as the NTC or the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec).

By : Bangkok Post