Thailand’s 4G expansion was thrown into disarray yesterday after a telecom company that beat more established rivals at an auction last year failed to meet its first payment deadline, voiding the bid.
The failure is a blow to the country’s junta, which had earmarked money from the lucrative auctions for use in key infrastructure projects and helping farmers, many of whom are reeling from low commodity prices and an ongoing drought.
Jasmine International, a new entrant in an already saturated market, surprised many observers in December when it offered an eye-watering 75.7 billion baht (US$2.1 billion) for one of two slots being offered on the 900MHz waveband.
The company’s share price swiftly dived after the auction, with many analysts fearing it would not be able to meet the steep price tag.
Those predictions proved true yesterday when regulators confirmed the group had missed the deadline for payment of the first instalment of 8 billion baht.
“The time for payment has expired,” Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission secretary-general Takorn Tantasit told reporters, adding that a fresh auction must now be held.
Jasmine would also forfeit an US$18 million deposit it had put down after the bid, he said.
Local reports said that the company had tried and failed to get the cash from Chinese and South Korean investors who balked at the price it paid at auction.
Jasmine did not answer calls for comment. Like many Southeast Asian nations, smartphone use has boomed in Thailand, with many using mobiles as the main way to access the internet.
However, many have complained that the kingdom’s 4G rollout has been slow, with auctions delayed by the 2014 coup and sky-high winning bids that analysts say will have to be absorbed by users.
One less competitor would likely result in “less choice and higher prices for consumers,” said Cheryl Tan, regional telecoms analyst for BMI Research.
The mobile industry in Thailand is dominated by market leader AIS, followed by DTAC — mostly owned by Norway’s Telenor — and True, part of the sprawling CP conglomerate.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by