The sum insured is Bt125 billion.

DTAC's post-paid customers whose numbers have been registered with the company for more than one year but less than five years will receive Bt50,000 worth of coverage. Those who have been with DTAC for six to 10 years will receive Bt100,000 worth of coverage, while those who have used DTAC's service for more than a decade will receive Bt500,000 worth of coverage.

Eligible DTAC customers will automatically qualify for insurance payments for accidental injury. The full amount will be paid for accidental death.

The company has not revealed the cost of the premiums. Initially, the insurance coverage will be available for one year, starting next month.

Sunti Medhavikul, DTAC's chief customer officer, said the project was a pilot programme aimed at creating greater customer satisfaction. The company will decide whether or not to renew the policy for its customers next year.

"It'll depend on our customers' satisfaction. If they like it, we'll continue it," he said.

Muang Thai will pay claims "within a week or two" after receiving verification that injury or death has resulted from an accident.

Sunti said that about 700,000 post-paid customers had been with DTAC for one to five years, about 400,000 for six to 10 years and the rest - about 100,000 - for more than 10 years.

For customers who have multiple DTAC mobile-phone numbers, the company will pick the one that has been registered for the longest time.

Muang Thai president Sara Lamsam said his company was aware of the risk of a high claim ratio, but he expected claims would be in the normal industry range of 30-40 per cent per annum for personal-accident policies.

Both Sunti and Sara said the synergy between their companies would continue and that plans were afoot for "a number of programmes" aimed at benefiting the customers of both DTAC and Muang Thai.

Separately, Sunti said DTAC would no longer compete in price wars to become the industry's leader.

"We'll play along, but we'll focus mainly on customer service," he said. "Currently, there are about 4.5 million post-paid mobile-phone customers in Thailand [for all cellphone operators]. I believe that number could grow to 6 million, so we'll come up with more services to increase our customer base."

DTAC is currently the second-largest cellular operator, with more than 10 million subscribers, the vast majority of them prepaid customers. Last year, its customer base [of post-paid users] was 1.4 million; so far this year, it has increased that to 1.97 million.

Sunti expects the number to exceed 2 million by the end of this year and reach 3 million in the next two years.

The heavy price-cutting war in the mobile-phone industry earlier this year led to traffic overloads in all cellular networks. It also eroded the net profits of cellular operators in the second quarter.

Sunti said DTAC would continue offering value-added services to its post-paid users.

Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon

The Nation