French telecom equipment provider Alcatel-Lucent announced a four-year deal with Thailand’s True Corporation to provide an IP transport network integrating True’s mobile, cable and Internet services and allowing for expansion of LTE services.
True claims to be the only carrier in Thailand to offer LTE and has more than 15 million mobile subscribers; the coming upgrade will facilitate a progression from 3G to LTE. The deal geographically covers the Thai capital Bangkok, which generates some 65% of the Southeast Asian country’s data traffic, according to Alcatel-Lucent.
Sebastian Laurent, Alcatel-Lucent’s president and managing director in Thailand, lauded the performance upgrades being deployed.
“We are increasing the reliability of their network performance across the board and the access speeds their customers will enjoy on their phones and their computers will provide for an extremely positive converged experience.”
He said the new network architecture will provide scalable backhauling while reducing power and space requirements.
True, incorporated in 1990, provides mobile service through its True Mobile Group, while TrueOnline provides broadband to more than 1 million households and TrueVisions provides high-definition television content,
“Today our business is all about quality and cost efficiency,” True’s Managing Director and Group COO Vichaow Rakphongphairoj said in a statement.
“Alcatel-Lucent’s commitment on both key business criteria is strong and is the foundation of our partnership. True looks forward to a long and profitable collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent.”
Alcatel-Lucent, with research and development arm Bell Labs, is traded on the New York and Paris stock exchanges; in 2013 the company reported revenues of more than $18 billion.
