dtac brings quality MBB to Thais

Thailand’s second-largest mobile operator is dtac and it has a vision of “Internet for all,” with access expanded to every part of the country. Fitaw Amlak,  Access Network Director, introduces dtac’s TriNet network strategy and addresses how it meets the needs of various segments of the population.

By Julia Yao & Joyce Fan

Thailand’s second-largest mobile operator is dtac and it has a vision of “Internet for all,” with access expanded to every part of the country. However, Fitaw Amlak, the operator’s Access Network Director, believes that “Internet for All” is not as straightforward as it sounds, and should be accomplished by addressing the needs of various segments of the population that are unconnected, either with the Internet or each other.

Different unconnected segments

When dtac launched its “Internet for all” vision in June 2013, CEO Jon Eddy Abdullah made it clear that the operator is determined to bring Internet access to every inhabited corner of Thailand within three years so that they have equal access to news, information and opportunities, translating into a higher standard of living.

In a recent interview with Fitaw Amlak, dtac’s Access Network Director, WinWin asked how they plan to support and realize the company’s vision. He pointed out that this is not a homogenous problem. For instance, one particular customer segment has handsets that support Internet access and lives in areas with Internet connectivity, but for reasons unknown to dtac, they don’t use data. This could relate to network quality, reliability, user experience, price, some combination, or none of the above, and Amlak feels that “we need to find out why the segment is not using data and how we can motivate them to use the Internet.”

Other subscribers have the resources and network availability necessary, but their handsets don’t support 3G. Amlak believes that affordable feature phones can suffice if connected at 2.1GHz. And of course, there are others in remote regions where there simply is no data coverage. Thailand’s northeast is lacking in terms of connection for both fixed and mobile (64.1% mobile penetration versus 84% in Bangkok), and this is where dtac started its road trip for “Internet for all.” In October 2012, long-delayed 3G licenses were finally awarded to three major operators in Thailand; dtac was one of them, and the operator is now in a better position to provide connectivity via TriNet, its new mobile network, which features the widest bandwidth and frequency range in Thailand (2G on 1800MHz, 3G on both 850MHz and 2.1GHz). According to Amlak, TriNet already covers 85% of the Thai population. “If we address these segments that I have mentioned, then you’ve already achieved quite a lot. The remaining 15% is not something that you will achieve overnight. But as long as it (Internet for all) is in the strategy document and followed vigorously, there are multiple options that we can follow. Active sharing, for example, is not a very new idea anymore, but probably all operators in the country will benefit from this kind of approach.”

Finally a license

Year 2012 was an eventful year for dtac. “We completed a network swap; we rolled out more than 5000 850MHz sites where we saw significant data growth in our network. We were awarded a 3G license at the 2.1GHz band, on which we are carrying out a very fast rollout now.” Amlak said.

3G rollout: Prioritizing 2.1GHz

According to a BMI report, after experiencing strong mobile user growth in 2010 (over 2.2 million users), the market slowed, with 622,000 net additions in 2011; 3G revitalized Thailand’s mobile market, which rebounded strongly in Q3 of 2012 with 1.46 million net additions. Amlak has seen the same trend in dtac’s network. “Before that we only had EGDE. The rollout of 3G in itself opened up the pipe. We’ve seen five-fold data growth.”

Before the 3G auction in October 2012, dtac operated the existing 850MHz 3G and 1800 MHz 2G networks under a concession where up to 35% revenue was shared with the local authorities. To reduce the expense related to revenue sharing and add more capacity in 2.1GHz, dtac wants to migrate as much traffic as possible to its 2.1GHz network. Amlak said, “Going forward, the main focus is 2.1GHz. Adding more capacity and enhancing our footprint on 2.1GHz is priority No.1.” According to Amlak, dtac’s 2.1GHz rollout is on the fast track, at a speed of one site every 35 minutes and 300 sites per week, with a goal of 5500 sites deployed by the end of 2013.

Network upgrade: Robust and LTE-ready

Beyond the rollout, dtac also invested in network modernization in 2012. “The scope of the project was to swap more than 11,000 base stations and we more or less completed that by December 2012, with a couple of hundred BTS switches completed in February in 2013.” However, the project has not ended there. The operator also made the network LTE-ready by upgrading the core and transport network and installing some new equipment, such as Huawei’s Blade RRU, to reduce space. “Upon completing all these, we have reduced our power consumption, reducing the OPEX on one side. We have a more robust solution, and we feel it is also a future-proof solution given that we have fiber or IP-based transport networks, which will be helpful for us going forward to LTE in an easier way compared to our competitor, who doesn’t have that solution,” Amlak added.

Feature phones have a role

According to Amlak, Thai people are crazy about the latest smartphones, with the iPhone, in particular, being extremely popular. “I think it is not an exaggeration to call Thailand ‘iPhone land’, compared to all the neighboring countries. When we look at our 3G subscribers, we see that 60% of the smartphones in that network are actually iPhone platforms.”

However, there is definitely a gap to bridge under the rubric of “Internet for all,” as a large chunk of the population cannot afford high-end smartphones, or even handsets that support 3G. According to Amlak, “Feature phones will be the answer.”

This is not as easy as it sounds, and dtac is working closely with Huawei to supply feature phones that are affordable and 2.1GHz-compatible. Amlak views this as a trend to embrace. “I think all in all probably you will find more handsets supporting 2.1GHz than handsets which support 850MHz. We expect this to increase substantially going forward because dtac is interested in this, because the operator AIS (a local competitor) is also on 2.1GHz, so they also do the same thing. So we expect to see substantial handset penetration growth of 2.1GHz.”

It’s not just for email

Internet for all may be the goal for dtac, but the Internet itself is only a means, not an end. According to Amlak, Thai MBB users love to take photos and share them, leading to significant strain on the uplink. “We see that (the uplink) as a bottleneck of our network, especially in Bangkok and a couple of cities in Thailand. Honestly speaking, when 3G was invented, it was never meant to support this much uplink traffic. Everybody just thought about downlink and downlink. Right now, for example, we are upgrading our assets for Huawei and the top features that we want to implement are features that help us enhance the uplink capacity.”

Another challenge to user experience has been the three different networks dtac operates; dtac has 2G on 1800MHz, 3G on 850MHz, and is in the midst of a 2.1GHz rollout for 3G. This arrangement is unique as 2.1GHz will have its own core while the 1800MHz and 850MHz share a separate core. “It makes the whole thing a little bit challenging because from 2.1GHz to 850MHz on 3G there will be roaming, in a sense. To ensure the mobility between 2.1GHz and the existing network, you don’t do that by changing the parameters on 2.1GHz. You have to touch the 850MHz and 2G as well. At the background, for our engineers, it is not a straightforward thing. It is a very complicated one.” However, Amlak is confident that they can assure that customers will not see or notice this.

Many independent network quality surveys have named dtac’s network as the best in Thailand in terms of quality. So what’s their secret? Amlak thinks it has been a move away from KPIs, with the operator no longer fixated on whether the accessibility is 99.9% as opposed to 99%. Amlak is clear that on the CT level, the KPIs are very good, but they are not the end of the story, as there are always pockets of unhappy subscribers. Thus, dtac has made a very strong linkage between KPI measurement and its call centers, where customer complaint totals are measured on a monthly base. “For us the KPIs will be just an input and the output will be the customer complaint reduction. Our engineers will be measured on how much they have reduced the customer complaints in their particular area.”

“All operators are deploying more or less the same technology in terms of coverage, but how happy the customers are will be the determining factor in how long they are going to stay with you.”