Triple T renews licence 9 years early

  THE TELECOM committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) yesterday resolved to renew the licence of Internet service provider Triple T Broadband for another 15 years, effective yesterday.
This means the renewal was granted to the company nine |years before its original licence term was due to end in February 2026. As a result, the new expiry date is January 29, 2032. 
The company has obtained this telecom licence with a 20-year term for the first time since February 29, 2006. 
Triple T, which has registered capital of Bt1.25 billion, is in the business group of the SET-listed telecom operator Jasmine International (Jas).
A telecom industrialist was surprised that the company had requested the renewal at this time, as it still had another nine years in its original licence term.
In its request for the licence-term extension, the company informed the telecom committee that it wanted to increase its |potential to seek loans from |financial institutions for its plan |to spend Bt97.919 billion between this year and 2036 to expand its network coverage and upgrade its technology. Of that total, Bt36.273 billion will be spent in the first five years. 
Triple T will also expand its fixed-line telephone service by an additional 800,000 numbers, up from the current 157,000. 
Under NBTC rules, a licence holder can apply for renewal at least one month in advance of the expiration date.
According to the NBTC office, the company paid a licence fee of Bt105.3 million in 2015 out of gross revenue of Bt7.537 billion. Its licence is in the Type 3 category, which is for operators with large and dedicated networks.
In its request for the licence renewal, the company cited the NBTC website, which noted that as of the third quarter of 2015 there were three major broadband Internet operators, namely TOT, True Corp and Triple T. True commanded the largest market share of 37.6 per cent, followed by Triple T at 31.6 per cent and TOT 21.1 per cent.
As of the third quarter last year, Triple T had 2.345 million broadband subscribers.
Jas posted consolidated total revenue for the third quarter of 2016 of Bt3.994 billion, increasing by Bt291 million year on year. Most of the revenue was contributed by Triple T. 
Jas’ share price yesterday fell by 1.69 per cent to close at Bt8.70.