Bangkok--3 May--DTAC
DTAC officially launches Thailand's first WAP Push-based PushMail service for individual mobile customers. Those who roam with a mobile phone are able to read e-mails sent to their free e-mail account constantly without need to install any program on a cell phone. The new service is set to capture Postpaid customers who admire the 'always on' lifestyle. The company aims to get 300,000 customers by the end of the year.
Sigve Brekke, chief executive officer of Total Access Communication Plc or DTAC said that the new PushMail service is developed with the aim to enable mobile phone customers to get the highest benefit in using a cell phone. The development is in line with the company's goal to progressively provide more non-voice services to customers. DTAC has a clear vision to invest in the 3G technology in the near future, which is significant to the development of data and non-voice services.
The company has a strategy to join with non-voice partners to provide more new services that are aligned with customers' lifestyles. Introducing the new PushMail service, DTAC teams up with Createch Software Co Ltd, a company set up by young generation who talented in software development, to develop the new mobile application.
"We are upgrading our network to run on EDGE nationwide. From more than 4,000 cell sites, we will turn not less than 90% of the network or over 6,000 cell sites nationwide to be EDGE. This will allow mobile phone customers to send and receive data at the speed 4 times faster than GPRS," said Sigve.
Pakorn Pannachet, senior vice president of the Value-Added Service Division said that the new PushMail service is developed to specifically support Postpaid customers' lifestyles, especially university's students who regularly use free e-mails, enabling them to get new e-mail updated at all time even when on the roam.
Using the service, customers can choose to tie their regular e-mail account to their mobile phone number. The service can support all free e-mails include Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and other e-mail systems using POP3, POP3S and IMAP.
When new e-mail sent to customers' account, the system will send a WAP Push link to customers' mobile phone. Once receives, customers can click the link to read, view an attached file, answer, forward or delete e-mail without need to install addition program on a phone. The system is developed to be compatible with all WAP-enabled mobile phones in the market. To date, about 80-90% of mobile phones are WAP-enabled.
Highlight of the service is the way it pushes a new e-mail to customers' mobile phone. Information comes with a WAP Push link includes name of a sender and topic, which will help customers to decide whether or not to click to read a new e-mail.
Pakorn said that customers can apply to use the PushMail service via channels. They can choose to apply via Web page at www.dtac.co.th/pushmail or WAP site at wap.dtac.co.th/pushmail_r. Also, they can call to get WAP Push via IVR at *72711. To prevent the system from sending unwanted e-mail or sending e-mail in a time that they are not available, customers can set a parameter to enable the system to filter e-mails for them. Customers have 3 options to filter their e-mails: setting up general parameter, setting parameters using 'key words' and setting a period of time to receive e-mails.
The company's target customers are group of Postpaid customers including teens who need to be in contact with friends at all times as well as those who are first jobbers that crave to check information from the Internet continuously.
Before offering the service officially, DTAC has started to trial run the service since the beginning of the year. The company is confident that number of users using the new PushMail service will surge up to 300,000 by the end of the year.
Pakorn said that the service's launch is consistent to the company's plan to upgrade its network nationwide to run on EDGE technology. The move is to underscore the efficiency of the network that can deliver data and information to customers throughout the country at much faster speed. The launch, meanwhile, also help increases the use of data on the high-speed network.
When compares VAS revenue in the first quarter of this year to the same period of the year earlier, DTAC's revenue from GPRS/EDGE services increase 165% while numbers of customers using the services rising from 600,000 to 2 million per month. To date, the EDGE traffics are two times higher than GPRS.
DTAC's PushMail service is now available. The company charges Bt30 for the service's monthly fee. (The charge excludes VAT and GPRS ไม่รวม VAT และค่า GPRS fee when using the service ). In the initial phase, the company sets up a promotion to waive the service's monthly fee for 6 months starting from now until October 31, 2007.
About Createch Software
Createch Software was founded in 2002 by the group of students graduated from Kasetsart University's Engineering Faculty. The team has developed mobile applications and software supporting PDA and mobile phones specifically. Members of the team joined the 1 st Dot Award Contest, held by DTAC in 2001 to seek for the best mobile application from candidates who are studying in the university.
Apart from developing the PushMail service, the latest development, Computech Software has developed number of software includes SmartThai, the Thai language program for Pocket PC and Symbian-based mobile phones. The program is hailed as the first complete Thai language system that truly opens the market of Thai language program for PDA device and mobile phones.
This includes SmartDictionary program, the world's first talking dictionary on a mobile phone and SmartChat, the MSN Client program on a mobile phone that allow users to send a picture taken from a mobile phone's camera directly to the MSN screen. The SmartChat program was launched officially in the beginning of 2006. It receives tremendous respond since the program's interface is akin to the use of a PC, which creates customers' satisfaction when working on the program.
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