He also said that Jas Mobile Broadband, the other successful bidder in the hotly contested cellular spectrum auction held late last year, had informed the NBTC that it would definitely start the payments before the March 21 deadline.

Today, True is scheduled to sign letters of guarantee facilities for the 900MHz licence with six banks: Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Kasikornbank, Krungthai Bank, Kiatnakin Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Yesterday, the company reported net profit of Bt4.4 billion in 2015 compared with Bt1.3 billion in 2014. Consolidated service revenue last year was Bt74.8 billion, up 10.8 per cent from 2014.

The improvement in net profit was driven by a 58-per-cent increase in operating profits together with a significant decline in interest expenses and depreciation on the second-generation cellular system.

For 2016, the company targets growth in consolidated service revenue of 13-17 per cent and 17-20 per cent for EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation). Revenue from True’s mobile unit grew by 17.3 per cent in 2015 while the other major players in the industry had a combined growth rate of only 0.3 per cent.

True reported that its mobile-phone unit TrueMove H had 19.1 million subscribers by the end of last year. True Online, its broadband service had reached 2.4 million households, while the TrueVisions pay-TV service expanded its customer base to 3.1 million.