Alexandra Reich, chief executive officer, said “The results this quarter mark an important milestone for dtac and are a testament to our focus on never-stop improving. We see that both post- and prepaid customers are responding well to our network

improvements as well as our efforts to create a more personalised user experience. Our strategic focus remains on delivering a consistent network experience nationwide and delighting customers by understanding and delivering on their needs”.

Throughout the year, dtac has worked consistently to improve the quality and footprint of its mobile network, doubling its rate of cell sites expansion.

In the third quarter , the number of its 2300MHz base stations reached 16,400. Dtac also continued on the journey towards 5G by launching a test-bed at its offices in Chamchuri Square and upgrading its virtual core network.

At an event at the company’s headquarters in Vientiane, solutions that rely on 5G technology, including smart homes, live broadcasting of 4K TV signals, robotics, virtual reality and speed tests to promote the capacity and capabilities, were demonstrated.

Lao Telecom, established in 1996, is a strategic investment by Thaicom through its subsidiary, Shenington Investments Pte. Thaicom effectively owns 25 per cent of Lao Telecom, and has been supporting it with personnel and know-how in finance, marketing, sales, training, technical needs and strategic planning.

Lao Telecom plans to expand 5G services over the next several years as the technology continues to develop, and more solutions will require the high speed, extremely low latency and the capacity for millions of devices to be connected simultaneously within a small area.

“We are very pleased that Lao Telecom continues to be a leader in introducing new technologies and solutions to Laos – technologies that will assist in the future development of the country,” said Thaicom CEO Anant Kaewruamvongs.

“It is working with partners across the region to introduce internet-of-things solutions for smart farms, smart homes, smart cities and more to the country.”

Lao Telecom deputy director general Souphon Chanthavixay noted that the Lao Ministry of Post and Telecommunications “is very keen on future developments in 5G networks” and his firm was proud to work with it in developing these networks “that will undoubtedly be an integral part of the country’s future growth”.

“As these new solutions arrive, there will be an increased demand for big data and interconnected networks and services,” added Piyawat Jriyasethapong, also a Lao Telecom deputy director general. “Lao Telecom will work with local and regional partners to develop a network infrastructure that will serve the needs of these modern innovations.”

Lao Telecom has a market share of 50 per cent among telecommunications providers in Laos. It is a joint venture between the Lao government of Lao (51 per cent) and Shenington (49 per cent).

The fund’s committee had earlier approved the allocation.

SME Bank plans to provide up to Bt57 billion in loans a year, beginning 2020.

The bank estimated that through its loan provision of around Bt57 billion a year, about 142,000 SMEs would have access to working capital till 2013 and generate at least 462,000 jobs annually.

The funding will go towards development of AI and big data systems and platforms to expand the B2B customer base under three existing pillars – marketplace service, data service, and technology service.

Anchana Vallipakorn, co-founder and chief executive officer of Baania (Thailand) said: “Baania has secured the 1st round series-B investment from Krungsri Finnovate, TQLD, THS Growth, and an angel investor. They have confidence in the continuous growth and development of big data and technology for real estate industry and see the chance for expansion to other businesses. Our latest developments include Baania.com 2.0 to enable the marketplace platform to meet demands of consumers more comprehensively, the database platform 77-province coverage, new technologies such as smart land bank system to analyse relevant real estate project development, intelligent valuation system to effectively assist financial institutions and asset appraisal companies, as well as data management platform for large public and private organisations. Currently, we are in discussions with more investors”.

Sam Tanskul, managing director of Krungsri Finnovate Co Ltd, said: “Krungsri Finnovate has been the lead investor for two consecutive rounds. Our first one was the series-A investment in 2018, which allowed Baania to enjoy substantial growth, not only in in-depth database of Bangkok and other 26 provinces in Thailand, but also its partnership with various new business corporations in different projects according to its expanding real estate expertise. This, coupled with its technology strength, enabled Baania to fulfill requirements of customers and business alliances in property and related businesses in its best capability”.

“At the same time, Krungsri and Baania are extending collaboration in several projects, mainly in the optimisation of in-depth data on people as well as property insight. With enhanced AI competency, Krungsri is working towards property appraisal innovations to expedite growth and agility of Krungsri home loan products for the maximum benefits of Krungsri customers,”  Sam added.

Thuntee Sukchotrat, chief executive officer of TQLD, an insurance tech and innovation company of TQM Corporation Public Company Limited,  said: “Home is the most important thing of a person’s life for it is the heart of the entire family. It takes great effort and determination for anyone to earn his/her house and securing it is of equal determination. This is the chief reason for growth of home insurance. TQLD, as the insurance technology expert, would like to meet demands of customers via TQM Insurance Broker—the leading insurance and financial adviser of Thailand. From selecting the best-matched policies from all insurance companies to aftersales services, we seek to assure that all of our customers are provided with products and services that suit them best in all aspects”.

“To achieve such tailor-made demand fulfillment, we need information on industry insight as well as in-depth customer data. As the big data expert in the insurance industry, we can leverage on the mentioned data and extract insight that delivers the best products and services for our customers,”  he added.

Vorathep Sirirat-usdorn, executive director of THS Growth said: “THS Growth is a company under Teo Hong Silom Group, which has been in the property construction and development for over 45 years. Our core policy is to develop business innovation both in respect of business solutions and partners to ensure we stay ahead the trend and effectively meet our customers’ demands. Parting up with Baania is a part of such strategy. With Baania’s core strength in AI and big data, our real estate business will reach out to customers with higher efficiency. Meanwhile, Baania’s expertise enables us to collect big data and utilise AI to design future products and services that match customers’ needs more accurately. We invest to leverage from the digital strength of Baania; and our confidence is boosted by the fact that Baania has been invested by Krungsri Finnovate. We strongly believe that Baania will continue its momentum of success in the future”.

“THS Group is confident that Baania’s AI system and database will power up its sales and distribution network, especially in the auto parking system, the industry in which it is recognised as the leader in Thailand. Such database will also optimise other businesses of the company, namely import of construction materials, which is innovation-driven, building mechanical and electrical system (M&E), and facility management and operational management  (FM & OM). Such investment is therefore an essential move of the group to venture into digital transformation with an AI and big data expert as the partner. We focus on strengthening our tech ability and are ready to invest with tech experts, both in property and other industries.”  Vorathep added.

Wongnai says it takes just a few steps to make a reservation using the application.

“Just open the app and search for the eatery you want; click ‘Reserve’; specify the number of persons and date, and type in the ‘promo code’ for an Eatigo voucher; specify the time; check reservation details and your information, then click ‘Confirm’ and wait for confirmation that will be sent via SMS, email or an alert from the app; and declare your name upon arrival at the eatery,” the platform said on Tuesday.

Consumers can visit the Wongnai website to check the list of participating eateries.

Wongnai serves more than 12 million monthly active users, according to the platform. Its restaurant database in Thailand “covers more than 300,000 eateries”.

Eatigo is a leading online reservations platform for restaurants in Asia, with its app downloaded “by more than 1.5 million users”.

Eatigo is available in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, the Philippines and Indonesia, and is expanding to more countries.

Deng is responsible for managing the company’s strategy, directions and the operation results, as well as developing new businesses in Thailand.

He joined Huawei in 2006 as an engineer, and has held several senior positions within the company including director of the contract management department, director of the multi-country management department in Huawei southeast Africa region, as well as CEO of Huawei’s south-eastern Africa multi-country rep office.

Prior to becoming CEO of Huawei Thailand, Deng worked as the director of carrier network for Huawei Thailand since May 2018.

With decades of experience in the telecommunications industry, he has played a key role in many of the company’s milestones in Huawei southern-east Asia region as well.

“We are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organisation for a fully connected, intelligent world,” said Deng. “Huawei has operated in Thailand for 20 years. We will shape the fully connected, intelligent future with all sectors together, to help the country reach the goals of Thailand 4.0.”

The board also appointed Banthoon chairman of the board (non-executive director) and adviser to the bank’s management committee.

The changes will come into effect the day after the bank’s annual general shareholders’ meeting in 2020.

The punitive damages award came on Tuesday evening in a Philadelphia personal injury case brought by a Maryland man, one of thousands of plaintiffs suing Johnson & Johnson over side-effects of the antipsychotic medication Risperdal.

It was more bad news for an industry hammered by negative headlines in 2019: an epidemic of opioid abuse fuelled by addictive pills, ever-rising prescription drug prices, and alleged price-fixing and other anti-competitive practices in the industry.

Prescription drug companies ranked dead last in a reputational survey released last month by Gallup, with nearly 60 per cent of Americans viewing the pharmaceutical companies negatively.

“The pharmaceutical industry is perceived as kind of a bad actor,” said Steve Chesney, a pharmaceutical industry research analyst at Atlantic Equities in London. “The only time people who are not sick might hear about them is when there’s instances of this type of litigation.

“I’m talking to investors who are concerned whether these companies are good corporate citizens or not.”

The industry also has been plagued in the past decade by growing numbers of product liability and deceptive marketing cases by most if not all of the largest companies.

Johnson & Johnson has been the focal point in some of the biggest of the past year. The company has lost costly court fights over the safety of perhaps its most famous product, Johnson’s Baby Powder, and its marketing of addictive opioid medication.

The $8-billion Risperdal verdict inflicted the heaviest financial damage, although legal observers expect it will be dramatically reduced by the court because it appears unreasonably high. The result highlights the risk of fighting cases rather than settling.

In August, a judge in Oklahoma found Johnson & Johnson liable for helping fuel the state’s opioid crisis and ordered it to pay $572 million to help meet health costs and others incurred by the state. The company had sold opioid pills and fentanyl skin patches. Johnson & Johnson has said it will appeal that verdict.

The company announced last week that it had reached a $20.4-million settlement with two Ohio counties, which will be the first test cases this month in a consolidation of more than 2,000 opioid lawsuits brought in federal courts.

The company’s powder products have drawn another raft of lawsuits. Last year, a jury in St Louis awarded $4.7 billion to 22 women who claimed that their ovarian cancer was caused by Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower. Both products contain talc that the plaintiffs said was tainted with asbestos. Johnson & Johnson, which has won some other baby powder lawsuits, has denied that its talc products caused harm.

The company has publicly reported it is being sued by 13,400 people over Risperdal. It says hundreds have been dismissed. The case that captured attention this week began in 2013 when Nicholas Murray, a Maryland man, alleged that Johnson & Johnson did not adequately warn doctors of the drug’s side effects. He began taking the drug in 2003, at age 9, to ease sleep problems associated with autism. But he suffered a side-effect: enlarged breasts, a condition called gynaecomastia.

The Food and Drug Administration did not approve Risperdal for children until three years after Murray began taking it. His physicians had prescribed it “off-label”, meaning in a way not approved by the agency.

In 2015, a jury in Philadelphia awarded Murray $1.75 million in compensatory damages, which were reduced to $680,000. The punitive damage phase of the trial did not take place until this year, with a different jury. Johnson & Johnson is vowing to appeal the $8-billion award.

A lawyer who tried the case for the company — John Winter, a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler — said on Wednesday that the judge prevented the jury from considering crucial information.

“We tried a case with our hands completely tied behind our back, and we were precluded from offering any evidence to give the jury a fair perspective on the issue they had to decide,” Winter said in an interview. He disputed the idea that the jury was sending a message with its eye-popping award.

“If the message is anything, the message was our due process rights were trampled,” he said

Another outside lawyer for Johnson & Johnson, John Beisner, a partner at Skadden Arps, who did not participate in Risperdal litigation but is assisting in other lawsuits facing the company, said civil claims against Johnson & Johnson are part of a wider national pattern of increasing tort claims against drug and medical device companies. He said the phenomenon is driven in part by private investors backing the early phases of litigation in hopes of a big payoff.

When asked whether Johnson & Johnson was facing a “crisis” of civil lawsuits, he replied, “The crisis, if there is one, is less focused on a particular company. It’s the rapid growth of all this litigation, and how companies generally and the system generally are going to deal with this.”

The nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen has tracked the number of criminal and civil settlements and court judgements against pharmaceutical companies for the past three decades, through 2017. Its figures show a strongly increasing trend until 2013, when they reached a peak of 60 in 2013. The number dropped off sharply in the next four years.

Starting in January, the company expects those products will not be of Chinese origin and therefore not subject to import duties, Fitbit said in a statement on Wednesday. Fitbit said it would give more details on the financial implications of the move during its third-quarter earnings conference call.

Fitbit joins other US companies moving out of China amid an ongoing trade war between the two countries. Tile Inc, which makes Bluetooth-enabled location trackers, also said it was considering a similar move and is looking at Mexico, Malaysia, Vietnam and “possibly the US” as future manufacturing hubs.

Last year, GoPro Inc announced it would move much of its US-bound camera production out of China. And Apple Inc has been battling the White House over requests to get the iPhone and other products off the list of Chinese-made goods slated to be hit with tariffs on December 15.

“This is a great example of companies making proactive decisions to mitigate tariff related-risk by, in this case, taking their entire supply chain out of China,” said Tom Forte, an analyst at DA Davidson. Others “may choose to follow suit as this trade war gets long and diffuse, and potentially escalates”.

Davidson, who has a “buy” rating on Fitbit, said the stock market is not giving companies enough credit for their efforts to mitigate tariff-related risks. “I expect that as earnings season comes we’ll be hearing a lot more about this from companies.”

Trade negotiators are heading to Washington for talks starting on Thursday and China is open to reaching a partial trade deal with the US, an official with direct knowledge of the discussions said. The trade talks have failed to make serious headway since negotiations collapsed in early May.

Thaworn made the order during a visit to THAI for a briefing of its financial status.

He also ordered a monthly report on the progress of the carrier’s plan to procure new aircraft.

THAI directors on September 24 asked the executive board of the national carrier for a review of its plan to order 38 more aircraft worth a combined Bt156 billion.

Thaworn added that the new business plan must come with clear details of how to make THAI profitable again and ways to boost customers’ satisfaction.