State-owned Thai telco TOT is in talks with four foreign telecom operators over a strategic partnership involving its fixed line broadband service, The Nation has reported. According to the newspaper two of the four foreign operators are from China, one is based in Japan and the final suitor comes from Indonesia. China Telecom is the only player actually named in the report, however. TOT president Montchai Noosong said that the involvement of a strategic partner will help TOT to gain a competitive advantage in the fixed broadband sector.
Running in parallel, TOT and sister company CAT Telecom are planning to merge aspects of their respective core businesses to form a trio of new companies, namely: the National Broadband Network (NBN), the Neutral Gateway Network (NGN), and the Internet Data Centre (IDC). TOT will spearhead the creation of NBN, while CAT will lead the establishment of the NGN and the IDC. Montchai said that TOT is preparing to hire consultants to assist with the creation of the consolidated companies, with the selected company expected to be in place by next month.
Finally, Montchai has reiterated long-running plans to seek a strategic partner to assist with the development of a wireless broadband network using its 60MHz spectrum reserves in the 2.3GHz band. As before, the selection process is now underway, he confirmed.