Thai telco Dtac adds 240,000 new users, now has 3.7 million 3G subscribers

Thai telco Dtac has just announced its Q3 financials. It added 240,000 new customers in three months, making the company the second largest telco in Thailand. Dtac has ported 3.7 million subscribers from 2G to 3G, and there are another 8.2 million waiting to be ported. 900,000 smartphone users were added to the network, which is a 29.1 percent increase.  In addition, 1.1 million subscribers used more mobile data in Q3. The telco now has a total of approximately 27.5 million subscribers.

Jon Eddy Abdullah, Dtac’s CEO, explained that the big jump could be the result of a more stable network service in Thailand, a greater choice of devices, and better pricing and packaging.

However, when asked about 4G, Jon explained curtly:

Thailand is ready for 4G. The customer is ready. The authorities are not.

Dtac’s 4G proposal was recently rejected by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) as it pointed out that the mobile operator instead needs to ask permission to do so from its concession owner CAT Telecom, a government-owned telco company.

However, Dtac has just appointed Panya Vechbanyongratana as the new senior VP of its network operation division to make sure that its infrastructure is stable and ready to roll out 4G as soon as the spectrum problem is solved.

Dtac also revealed today that it has won an award within the Telenor group as the best performing company. Telenor also has presences in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Malaysia.

(Editing by Steven Millward)