The DOT successfully showcased the prototypes of its user-friendly public toilets at the Tourism and Sports for All Exhibition, held as part of the recent Thailand Social Expo 2018 organized by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, said Anan Wongbenjarat, the DOT’s director general.

The DOT also hosted the exhibition “The Touch of Happiness, The Experiences of Thai Ways: Sustainable Tourism” at the Thailand Social Expo 2018.

“It’s the DOT’s mandate under Weerasak Kowsurat, the Tourism and Sports Minister, to develop tourism infrastructure to serve the visitors of all age groups, genders, and people with physical challenges,” Anan said.

The DOT, he added has been working closely with the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning, to develop different prototypes of user-friendly public toilets and make them available for free so the tourism communities and general business concerns can readily use the designs or adapt them to serve their visitors without having to shoulder the design costs themselves.

At present, there are three prototypes of user-friendly public toilets — for men, women, and the disabled. Construction costs range from Bt2.1 million to Bt4.3 million.

The company expects the trading platform will have handled more than 100 property transactions by the end of the year.

Nattapong Lertwuthirak, chief executive of TongThai Group, said that the company spent two years of development on the project at an investment of around Bt30 million.

Nattapong said ts-fang.com is an online-to-offline (O2O) platform and the first full-service Chinese-language property trading website in the country. It provides property information related houses, new condominiums and second-hand houses, with more 1,000 properties listed.

It also provides consulting services for Chinese who want to buy property in Bangkok. The firm will expand its services to cover others areas, such as Pattaya, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and Phuket provinces, in the near future.

“We provide property information and property categories to support Chinese people who want to buy property outside their country for the purposes of investment or to live in Thailand,” said Nattapong. “The average property price for them is Bt5 million. Normally, Chinese people will have a budget to buy property outside their country of around Bt15 million. Our services are an alternative choice to support those who want to buy property in Thailand.”

Tiensak Thamcharonkij, chief financial officer of TongThai Group, said the top five areas for Chinese buyers are Ratchada, Rama 9, Sukhumvit, Silom and Sathorn.

“The price that Chinese people are willing to pay is Bt5 million on average,” Tiensak said. “Chinese people also responding well to rising condominium prices and high-end condominiums are becoming more popular in the market.”

The website also aims to attract more than 30,000 users a month, with the main target customers coming from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.

The website provides real estate directory and consulting services, focusing on around 10,000 Chinese expatriates in Thailand and Chinese investors still living in their country. These include retirees, businessmen and the more than 30,000 Chinese students in Thailand.

“I think that the property market in Thailand is continuing to grow and Chinese people want to come to Thailand and stay here as their second home to support their lifestyle, and this contributes to the growth of the property market in the country,” said Tiensak.

Yesterday, DTAC subsidiary DTAC TriNet and AIS subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) submitted only the applications to bid for the 1800MHz licences.

Earlier, the two groups were the only telecoms operators to pick up the bid documents for both spectra in the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s (NBTC) revised auction timeframes. Yesterday was the deadline for the submission of bid applications.

AIS’ shares yesterday closed at Bt204 each, up 2.26 per cent, while DTAC’s shares jumped 12.5 per cent to end at Bt45. True Corp’s shares closed at Bt6.65, gaining 2.31 per cent.

A telecom industry observer said that DTAC’s decision not to bid for the 900MHz licence means it will become the only the telecom operator without low- band spectrum after its 850MHz concession expires on September 15. The observer believes that this could compromise its network coverage indoors and in rural areas.

This handicap might pave the way for True Corp and AIS, which have low-band spectrum and strong rural coverage, to gain market share from DTAC in rural areas. The observer’s view is based on the latest announcement of the NBTC that it would not grant a remedy period sought by DTAC for the 850MHz service after its concession ends.

The remedy period refers to the length of time that a telecom operator can continue to offer services on existing spectrum after a concession arrangement ends. This provision is aimed at preventing a disruption to services.

The NBTC will auction nine licences of the 1800MHz spectrum, each containing 5MHz, on August 19. The regulator will announce the names of the qualified bidders on August 15.

Each of the 1800MHz licence bidders can bid for a maximum of four licences. The starting bid price for a 1800MHz licence is Bt12.486 billion.

According to AIS chief corporate officer Weerawat Kiattipongthaworn, due to the upward trend in the telecom industry, the company will have an opportunity to use the 1800 MHz band to develop more innovations and services for all its customers and across all industries.

DTAC chief executive officer Lars Norling said DTAC had considered the auction rules carefully and concluded that it would participate only in the 1800 MHz auction. The revised conditions for the 1800 MHz auction allow more flexibility for the bidders and facilitates competition, he said.

“The effort to acquire the 1800MHz spectrum is a way of safeguarding customers’ interests to ensure uninterrupted services while we are taking all necessary preparatory measures, including the customer protection plan, to ensure that no customer is adversely impacted by the concession expiry,” Norling said.

“Adding 1800 MHz spectrum into the current spectrum portfolio will not only allow DTAC to maintain 2G service for a large base of customers but will also increase 4G network capacity to serve the massive growth of data usage.”

CAT Telecom granted the concession to DTAC to operate the 1800MHz and 850MHz spectra. After the September 15 expiry of the concession, the NBTC will reclaim both bands, upgrade the 850MHz band to 900MHz, and put the 1800MHz bands and 900MHz band up for auction.

Norling said that DTAC had declined to bid for the 900MHz spectrum after its management previously raised serious concerns over the conditions regarding a signal interference in the NBTC final Information Memorandum that would cause the company operational risks and unpredictable costs.

The auction conditions state that the winner of the 900 MHz licence is solely responsible for any and all interference between the 900MHz band allocated for the auction and the other 900MHz band allocated for proposed railway projects.

NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith said yesterday that DTAC might be interested to bid for the 900MHz in the future once the risk stemming from the conditions was removed. The NBTC will consider how to proceed next on this issue.

Norling said that DTAC is still in talks with the NBTC about the remedy measure to prevent any interruptions to its customers after the CAT concession expires

True on Tuesday sent a notification to the Stock Exchange of Thailand of its decision not to participate in the frequency auctions, saying that the 55MHz of frequency bandwidth that it owns and operates is adequate for the growth of its subscriber base.

The draw involved 4,285 customers who had bought Michelin touring or light truck tyres in July.

The winners, from Hai Phong, Ha Noi, Binh Duong, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, and Can Tho, will attend a safety training course, get apprised about Michelin’s various sports tyres, participate in test drives in Formula 4 racing cars and Porsche Cayman cars, and sit with professional racers in the famous SEAT Lean TCR car.

All the activities will be supervised by skilled technicians and professional racers to ensure safety.

They will take part in the event with 560 other Michelin customers from the Asia-Pacific region.

This is the third year that the French company has held the lucky draw.

In 2016 it sent two winners to Sepang, Malaysia, and last year three went to Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi course.

Overall, it aims to extend its coverage for a range of services to more than 60,000 households in Bangkok by next year.

Ruchvuth Pichayapan, chief executive officer of Fixzy, said that the firm provides a mobile application that enables matching between technicians and users who need repair and maintenance services.

The application will generate a list of technicians from which customers can make a selection for their particular requirements.

The company provides technician services covering repairs to household water systems, lighting, structural issues, home maintenance services, air-conditioner cleaning and household cleaning services.

“The Fixzy application is the first mobile application in Thailand to match between technicians and users,” Ruchvuth said. “Customers gain more convenience, with reliability and a high standard of services.

“Three years ago we focused on providing on-demand solutions for home-related problems and this year we have a training centre that guarantees a technician’s quality. User can choose a technician from approval badges (Fixzy recommend, ID card verified, police checked, home care insurance), rating review and other details about the technician.”

He said that the firm has more than 4,500 technician teams available to support customers via its application. The firm provides technician services in Bangkok and its outskirts.

It has joined with partners to test the provision of services in Melbourne, Australia. It plans to provide technician services in provinces such as Phuket, Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, and Chon Buri next year. It will officially announce the services in Melbourne next year.

The firm has worked with partners to provide new car repair services. It also will use the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) technology and Big Data to analyse its customers’ needs in order to continue providing better services.

The company has had 150,000 downloads of the app and expects to reach 500,000 downloads next year. It has around 70,000 active users and offers around 100 services a day via the application.

He added that the company is continuing its investments in the expansion and development of logistic facilities, plant maintenance services among others under its five-year budget of Bt13 billion ($404 million). Up to US$244 million will be spent this year, followed by US$138 million in the year 2019, and US$22 million in 2020.

He added that the increase in passenger volumn was a result of marketing collaboration with Thai Airways International Plc on mileage collection.

“We believe the company will reduce loss following our rehabilitation plan,” he said.

Its management considered that the company should not take part in the auctions of the licences to operate the 900MHz and 1800MHz frequencies for telecommunication business by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) on August 18-19.

The company made the decision carefully, taking into account optimal benefits of its customers and investors, according to Vichaow Rakphongphairoj, True Corp’s co-president.

The company emphasised that the decision not to join the auctions would neither cause True to lose any business opportunity nor affect TrueMove H’s cellular-service competitiveness in the mobile market.

The company sufficiently owns and operates 55MHz of frequency bandwidth, which is adequate for the growth of its subscriber base, which is expected to double in the near future, Vichaow said.

True is also sure it is able to retain its comparative advantages in the market, as well as continuing to deliver its best performance and customer experience.

Earlier, the NBTC had planned to offer only the 1800MHz licences in an auction set for August 4.

However, it had to change the schedule and revise the auction terms and conditions to the present framework after the country’s three telecom operators declined to submit bid applications by the original deadline of June 15.

Under the current timeframe, today is the last day that prospect bidders can pick up the bid documents.

Advanced Info Service (AIS) group and Total Access Communication (DTAC) group had already picked up the application papers to bid for both spectra.

True did not pick up the application document.

It remains to be seen, however, whether either or both AIS and DTAC will submit bid applications by the August 8 deadline, which is only a day away.

True’s share price on Tuesday closed at Bt6.50, up 2.36 per cent on the day.

AIS shares closed at Bt199.50, unchanged from Monday, while those of DTAC finished the day at Bt40, down 2.44 per cent.