True, Cisco Team Up For SME VoIP

True Corp. Plc., a Thailand communication products provider, has expanded its services portfolio for corporate and small and medium-sized enterprise customers with its MPLS Data Networking Solution, a service based on the Cisco Systems (News - Alert) Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network architecture and IP Multiprotocol Label Switching technology.

The service will initially handle data but can also be used to offer voice and video services to business customers over a converged network. It’s now available in Bangkok and other major cities in Thailand, names of which aren’t coming immediately to First Coffee.

According to Songtham Phianpattanawit, a guy who never has to spell his name over the phone when speaking to Westerners and True’s managing director of corporate solutions, wholesale and data, “The latest offering, ‘MPLS Data Networking Solution’ from True, in conjunction with Cisco, will provide our customers with tremendous operational benefits.”

The True MPLS product supports customers’ demands for converged networking products, company officials say, characterizing it as “especially suitable for enterprises that view network connectivity as crucial for their business and that have branches in many locations.”

Vorkon Patra-Yanan, the regional managing director for Indochina (now there’s a refreshing colonial neologism) at Cisco, said he’s gratified that True “has put its faith in IP technology.” He confirmed that Cisco will offer True integrated data, voice and video services for its corporate customers.

“True built the first 10-gigabit IP network in Thailand, and this IP/MPLS-based service is another step in the right direction,” Patra-Yanan remarked.

At the core of True’s Cisco IP NGN architecture are the Cisco 12000 Series Router and the Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Switch. The Cisco 12000 Series comprises routers that scale from 2.5 Gbps/slot to 40 G/slot to service-enable carrier IP/MPLS core and edge networks.

Last November True announced it would take over cable TV operator United Broadcasting Corp  in a deal worth about half a billion dollars. As part of the deal True agreed to buy a 30.59 percent stake in UBC from MIH Holdings for $150 million.

According to Thai industry observer Bamrung Amnatcharoenrit Komsan Tortermvasana, who kind of makes this reporter glad he’s living in a country where the hardest names he encounters are on the order of “Ufuk Kahramanoglu,” the transaction will boost True's holding in UBC to around 70 percent. Tortemv… Troter…Tortellini… Bamrung also said True would launch a tender offer for the 221 million shares outstanding.

Supachai Cheavaranont, the chief executive of True, said at the time the deal would give the company greater control of its business lines and pave the way for the future convergence of voice, data and multimedia services to customers.

True at the time controlled “a full array of fixed-line, wireless, internet and television services, with only gateway and third-generation (3G) cellular licenses missing from its line-up,” according to… the guy who wrote it.

True Corporation Public Company Limited the largest wireline service provider in Bangkok, the largest broadband provider in the country and a major player mobile phone service provider.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims’ columnist page.

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