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Dtac CEO Sigve Brekke. |
AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn. |
NEC of Japan said it got the first known real contract to build and operate a WiMAX network in Thailand; it will install the system for the more than 20 hospitals of the Crown Prince Hospital Foundation, centred in Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai; NEC was so excited it forgot to say how much it was getting for the job, which must give wireless broadband communications for 5km; if successful, the system will allow constant contact between hospitals and clinics, and vastly increase efficiency of patient treatment.
Contracts are for kids, apparently, as your CAT Telecom decided to submit its dispute with favoured partner Huawei Technologies of China to the Office of the Attorney-General; the Huawei contract carried a fine of 90 million baht a day for unfinished work on the 7.2 billion baht CDMA network installation, but Jirayu Roongsrithong, a senior CAT executive president for vice, explained that the contract "needs legal support," leaving taxpayers to wonder what the original contract was, if not legal; Huawei has suggested to its CAT friends that the fine be cut in half.
Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold, admitted that their voting machines used in 34 US states contain a programming error that could cause votes to be dropped from memory when election results are transferred from the memory card to a central vote-counting machine; the error has been built into Diebold machines for 10 years; among other efforts including attempted sale of voting machines, Diebold (Thailand) Co. Ltd provides ATM technology in Thailand.
Chicken People (CP) subsidiary True Corp, the Thai-based No. 3 yuppiephone firm, announced its net loss in the second quarter widened to 2.67 billion baht, up from 696 million baht, year-on-year, and the biggest quarterly loss in six years; analysts blamed intensifying competition and slower spending by consumers.
Yuppiephone vendor Jay Mart will go public on Sept 16, floating 75 million new shares in an initial public offering.
The National Telecommunications Commission said it will award licences to operate third-generation (3G) mobile phone services by the second quarter of next year.
Lame-duck CEO Sigve Brekke of No. 2 yuppiephone network Dtac of Norway said it will have third-generation mobile phone coverage in Bangkok by the first quarter of next year - and nationwide with six months after that; the five-billion-baht plan gives Dtac a clear 3G advantage, he said. Top yuppiephone firm Advanced Info Service of Shingapore said it would see the bet of No. 2 rival Dtac of Norway to offer third-generation mobile service as an exclusive option and raise by fast 3G service; AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn warned the European company they should be careful about trying to use 3G as a weapon to beat the Shingaporeans, because AIS has deep pockets and can race Dtac in network installation; government spokesmen did not announce an investigation of whether AIS and Dtac were colluding to hold back 3G competition.
Ron Lamberty, president of vice for the American Coalition for Ethanol, committed an understatement when he said in an interview in Iowa state that, "There's a lot of waiting going on" over E85, the fuel that hardly exists for the cars that haven't been made; Rick Gunther, a senior GM executive for fleet operations said: "E85 needs more infrastructure. I tell retailers, 'We're the chicken, you're the egg';" GM is waiting for more E85 pumps, while the ethanol makers are awaiting more flex-fuel vehicles able to use the 85 per cent ethanol blend of petrol.
Suparat Sirisuwannangkura, president of the Thai Automotive Industry Association explained that car-makers must have government support to make cars capable of burning E85 fuel; Mr Suparat explained that the government must help fuel sellers set up more E20 pumps around the country.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej told his Sunday morning audience the government will provide tax privileges to car-makers that agree to make vehicles capable of burning E85 fuel, and to have functioning assembly lines within 18 months; Japanese manufacturers have dissed the E85 programme in favour of their own country's E80 option, but US giant GM is mulling whether to make E85 vehicles in Thailand, as well as in the US. General Motors and PTT announced a partnership to develop alternative energy and the vehicles to run them, for export to the entire Asean region. Thai-based executives of car-making firms highly praised the offer by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to push his visionary E85 scheme; they only had one tiny suggestion, to delay the whole thing for a while; for one thing, producing E85 fuel when there are no cars able to use it seems a tad loose with the subsidy money, they thought, and automakers need lots of time to mull and only then to possibly start building E85-capable cars; apart from those small problems, the premier's plan is brilliant, they all marvelled.
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