Bangkok--24 Jan--DTAC dtac today turns a new page in the Thai telecom history by cooperating with CAT Telecom and Ericsson to demonstrate mobile broadband using HSDPA technology on the 850 MHz spectrum band. dtac chooses Ban Paeng School and Mahasarakham University in the North-east region as locations for testing the efficiency of high-speed mobile broadband. Sigve Brekke, CEO of dtac, said dtac cooperated with CAT and Ericsson to test the mobile broadband on the 850 MHz spectrum band using the HSDPA (High —Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology from September to November 2007 with satisfactory results. “The cooperation can pave way for us to offer a new alternative for users to have access to mobile broadband, which is a basic infrastructure to enhance Thailand’s social, economical and educational development. We want to provide a chance for Thai to have more Internet access through both notebook computers and mobile phones. At the same time, we also want to push for the increase of the broadband Internet penetration rate,” Sigve said. A recent survey has found that the penetration rate of Thai Internet users is only 13 per cent compared with 20.6 per cent in Vietnam and 47.6 per cent in Malaysia. And the broadband Internet penetration rate is only 2 per cent. Sigve said dtac is carrying out a feasibility study on both technology and investment for the upgrade of the 850 MHz band for providing broadband Internet access because the company wants to utilize the band to its most capacity. Studies in foreign countries found that the cost of upgrading the existing band into 3G system may be lower than setting an entirely new network in the 2.1 GHz band. It will require some 1,600 to 1,700 cell sites to upgrade the 850 MHz system into the 3G network to cover the entire country. Amarit Sukhavanij, Senior Vice President and head of Next dtac Division, said that dtac studied examples from foreign operators, such as Telstra in Australia. The foreign operators have become successful in upgrading their 850 MHz band into HSDPA system. dtac cooperated with the CAT and Ericsson to test the system for three months from September to November 2007. The test areas were at Siam Square and Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road in Bangkok, and in Mahasarakham province in the Thailand North-east. The test yielded satisfactory results and found that the peak download speed was 5 megabits per second while the peak upload speed ranged between 1 to 1.4 mbps. The speeds were much faster than the peak download speed of EDGE, which ranges between 200 to 240 kilobits per second. “We believe that users will not only use mobile broadband Internet on their notebook computers but they will also use their mobile phones to download data. Now, there are over 60 models of mobile phones in the market that can work on 850 MHz band,” Amarit said. dtac chose Mahasarakham as the first location for testing the HSDPA system because some areas of the province are remote and are not covered by basic telecom infrastructure. Moreover, the province is expanding fast because it is an important education hub in the northeastern region. dtac received full cooperation from Mahasarakham University and Ban Paeng School to test the efficiency, upload and download speeds through the mobile phone network. The most popular and successful application tested was the long-distance learning system, which will enhance education for students in remote schools. Hans O. Karlsson, President and Country Manager of Ericsson (Thailand) Ltd., said the wireless broadband market is growing very fast and the use of wireless broadband is becoming an important part of basic human needs. “Ericsson is the leader in HSDPA technology. We are confident that the technology will enhance the mobile communication to be fully functioning as broadband mobile phone. This is because it can provide multimedia services such as on-line music and video, internet-services and mobile TV with total capabilities. Ericsson as the technology leader and End to End Solutions provider in telecommunications is ready to provide innovative technology and solutions to Thai mobile phone operators and Thai users with competent people and advanced equipments”, Hans said. For more information Customer: 1678 dtac Call Center Press: Media Relations Division - dtac Matchima 081-655-2173 Ponnana 081-623-9895 Songkram 081-550-2563 Suchalee 081-710-9879 Siriporn 081-612-9809 Pimpakarn 081-614-9828 Tasanee 081-658-6560