Telecoms firm ALT sees surge in demand for bandwidth
SET-listed ALT Telecom (ALT) says its fibre-optics business is booming in the “new normal” era thanks to increasing demand for bandwidth from mobile operators. The ALT share price is up almost 94 per cent this year, as of Monday.
Somchai Treerattananukool, vice president of Marketing and Sales at International Gateway (IG), a subsidiary of ALT, said internet usage in the Asean region, including Thailand, was rising rapidly amid lockdown measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.
"The demand for bandwidth to connect with the internet in this region is expected to increase by 35-40 per cent yearly," he said.
He added that the company had invested in 15 base stations on the border between Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia.
"In 2018, the region’s leading telecoms companies and mobile operators used bandwidth totalling 260 gigabit per second. The bandwidth then increased to 470 gigabit per second in 2019 and 1 terabit per second this year," he said.
He added that ALT designs its fibre optic networks with high security and various access points to meet demand during the Covid-19 crisis.
