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Published on February 26, 2008

"Today, I am happy with what I have," said the low-profile Vichai, whose family established United Communication Industry (Ucom) and founded the second-largest cellular operator, Total Access Communica-tion (DTAC).

His family also had a long-running rivalry with the Shinawatra family that once operated the country's top telecom firm.

In October 2005, the Bencharongkul family sold its 40-per-cent stake in Ucom to Norway's strategic partner Telenor in a deal worth Bt9.2 billion.

Although the sale ended a 45-year family business, Vichai said the move to offload was the right decision.

"Everybody knows it [telecom] is a cash-draining business. The local partner has no capacity to continue raise capital unlike the foreign partner," Vichai said.

"My elder brother Boonchai said it was okay [to sell]. We built the telecom business up and when time came to let go, we did."

At the time Ucom owed a debt amounting to Bt7 billion.

"You start to think whether you can settle such a mountain of debt in a lifetime? I don't want to be in debt for the rest of my life," Vichai laughed.

Currently Vichai is presi-dent of the family-owned Benchachinda Holdings, which is focused on the fast-rising broadband industry.

Last week its mainly owned network provider United Information Highway (UIH) conducted a joint trial of WiMax longdistance mobile broadband connection tech-nology with Motorola and Intel in Phuket.

The trial is part of UIH's plan to spend Bt1 billion on developing the WiMax network in many resort islands.

UIH is one of many com-panies is waiting for the National Telecommuni-cations Com-mission to issue WiMax licences.

Vichai said that last year Benchachinda recorded Bt34 billion in revenue, with a profit of Bt1.5 billion.

"The result is very satisfactory for me because I don't expect much," Vichai said.

The group's revenue last year fell 15 per cent from 2006, due to the economic slow-

down.

When asked what is the group's revenue target this year, Vichai said he was aiming for the same revenue as last year.

Again, he stressed his philosophy was not to become too ambitious.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation