On the contrary, there is a lot of opportunity for telcos to work with the likes of Facebook, Line, Whatsapp and YouTube in Asia. He noted that Facebook has prioritized Thailand as its number two market worldwide and Thailand is also the 2nd largest YouTube viewing community in the world - bigger than India, the UK and France to name but a few countries.
To that end, Sigve said that the company needs more spectrum and a better pricing model.
“I see more cooperation than real threats,” he said.
Sigve Brekke is also Interim Dtac CEO. He said that on the Thai front, negotiations with Dtac’s concession holder CAT Telecom are going well both at the management and at the board levels. He said there is agreement on both towers and on fiber and expects an agreement sometime this year.
The issue is complicated in Thailand because of the BTO concession which means that CAT (and fellow state telco TOT) own the networks not the telcos.
He also said that Dtac has intentionally played the emotional card. The company has been sandwiched by one company with the premium image (referring to AIS) and another with a value for money image (TrueMove). Dtac wants to be the one loved by consumers and to be king of content with a preferred position with the most popular domestic convent providers.