COMMUNICATIONS

SRISAMORN PHOOSUPHANUSORN

Jasmine International Plc, the parent company of the provincial telephone providerTT&T, expects its rising-star broadband and international internet gateway service revenues to increase by 50% next year.

The group's consolidated revenue is projected to hit 10 billion baht in 2010,up from an expected 8 billion this year.

CEO Pete Bodharamik said Jasmine was spending more than 1 billion baht to increase its broadband network capacity by 200,000 ports to 1.4 million.

The company, through its subsidiary JasTel, also plans to spend an additional 200 million baht to expand its international internet gateways and internet private lease circuit facilities next year,targeting revenues of between 1.2 billion and 1.3 billion baht, up from 800 million this year and 200 million in 2008.

Its customers include NTT DoCoMo and KBBI of Japan, PCCW of Hong Kong,and SingTel of Singapore.

Mr Pete said Jasmine expected its broadband customer base next year to reach 900,000, up from 560,000 this year,using its new 3BB brand, formerly known asMaxNet. The company expects its customers in Bangkok to top 250,000 next year, compared with 80,000 now.

Broadband revenue is estimated at 4 billion baht this year and 5 billion next year, he said.

Jasmine has transferred all customers from Triple T Broadband, TT&T's Bangkok broadband arm, to its own books.Broadband revenue was shifted to Jasmine's accounts in mid-June.

Most customers are using Jasmine's broadband network without passing through TT&T's facility.

Mr Pete said Thailand's broadband market is set to top 3 million next year,up from 2 million this year and 1.3 million last year. To expand its customer base,Jasmine is upgrading 550,000 broadband customers who signed up with 3-megabit service to 4 Mb with an unchanged monthly tariff of 590 baht.

The company is preparing to introduce a series of "buffet" tariff promotions for its internet protocol TV (IPTV) services on top of broadband, such as unlimited Korean programming for 199 baht per month, in February. Mr Pete also said Jasmine planned to expand into voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and other telecom-related services next year.

Jasmine shares (JAS) closed yesterday at 0.50 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 5.34 million baht.