Callers ring for service in Thailand

Published: 26/08/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

In terms of mobile phones at least, Thailand is one of the world's most communicative nations. There are more phones than people, according to the United Nations, and marketing figures show that more than 90% of all Thais above school age carry mobile phones.

But there is big trouble among this handset group. Even though there is competition, subscribers are routinely abused by the big companies who control the mobile phone business. There are signs the subscribers are getting angry enough to do something about it.

A recent meeting in Bangkok brought representatives of phone-using groups from across the region into one room to talk about mobile phone networks. The consumers were not at all happy. Complaints ranged from poor quality of calls to lack of help when subscribers switch systems, particularly in keeping their old numbers. So-called "mobile spam" in the form of unwanted text messages infuriates most phone owners. But the biggest complaint of mobile phone users in Thailand and around the region centres on the extra charges - unadvertised and unexplained to users, and available only in the small print on contracts, if at all.

Some consumers believe the phone companies have deliberately misled their customers in order to boost the bottom line. And in Thailand, the bottom line of mobile companies is very impressive indeed. Last week, the No.1 network Advanced Info Services reported its second-quarter story of woe. Founded by fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and now controlled by Singaporean interests, AIS claims to have 27.9 million subscribers, most of whom pay in advance for their phone services. The company complained that its net profit between April and June dropped to "only" 4.2 billion baht, on revenue of 25.2 billion.

It's tough to feel sorry for companies making that sort of profit in the midst of a recession. The other two top phone companies, DTAC and True Move, report similar profits, in line with their customer base.

The UN's International Telecommunications Union recently reported that Thailand has 118 phones per 100 people of phone-using age. With that number of customers contributing that sort of income to the top phone companies, along with the government duopoly which also makes substantial profits from the business, consumers should get more for their baht.

The three major mobile companies recently made what can only be called a sham attempt to address the problem of text-spam. In fact, they well know who is sending unwanted messages to complaining customers. An AIS official admitted his company profits by selling blocks of SMS calls to commercial firms.

Consumers are beginning to appeal to the government and to the National Telecommunications Commission for action. The phone firms, getting a few baht here and a couple more there from almost every advance-pay customer, are making huge profits on questionable business deals. And they still won't even allow subscribers to take their numbers with them when they change providers, claiming it is far too difficult.

The government can, and will do only so much. Consumers owe it to themselves to organise against any perceived mistreatment by the phone firms. Questionable deals should be heavily publicised - members of the media are phone users, too. In extreme cases, boycotts can work far better than slow government officials. Telephone users, meaning pretty well all citizens, deserve a better deal. They should send a strong message to the phone companies that they are not going to take shoddy service any longer.