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Published on April 1, 2008

Advanced Info Service (AIS), Thailand's largest mobile-phone operator, plans to increase usage of mobile Internet among consumers with the launch of a set of location-based services in the near future.

Pratthana Leelapanang, acting assistant vice president for Wireless  Service Marketing at AIS, said the move is aimed at expanding the use of mobile Internet beyond corporate users to consumers and increasing revenues from non-voice  applications by 50 per cent.

The first few services to be launched include directory and navigation services. The directory service allows users to get information about a location, such as the distance from the current position of the user. Meanwhile, the navigation service allows users to get route suggestions. "The purpose of location-based services is to help mobile users access services rather than  allow others to track mobile-phone users with the technology," Pratthana said.

A digital map, the current location identified by cell sites as well as a high-speed network are required to provide these services.

To promote the use of mobile Internet, Pratthana said the company has invested Bt20 billion last year and will be investing Bt10.5 billion this year to upgrade its network to adopt Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE) technology. This will ensure that the speed of mobile Internet is satisfactory.

EDGE is a faster version of the Global System for Mobile (GSM)  wireless service designed to deliver data at rates of up to 384 kbps and enable delivery of multimedia and other broadband applications.

The plan to launch location-based services is part of the company's push to increase revenues from non-voice applications.

Pratthana said the revenue from non-voice applications represents only 11 per cent of AIS's total revenue but has the highest growth rate.

Traditional voice applications still contribute 74 per cent to the company's revenue while the rest is earned from non-voice valued-added services and voice value-added services.

"In other countries, non-voice value-added services contribute 25 per cent of the total revenue. This means that we have more room to drive revenues from this segment. We expect a significant amount of the revenue growth to come from mobile Internet usage," Pratthana said.  

Among the top three non-voice value-added applications, mobile Internet has the highest growth rate at 50 per cent, driven partly by investments in upgrading the network and the boom in music  downloads.

The company has also launched a trans-coder engine which will help in accessing many more websites including those that do not directly support the wireless application protocol (WAP).

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation