[Satellite News 04-26-10] In May 2009, Thaicom appointed Arak Chonlatanon CEO as part of the company’s efforts to broaden the reach of its satellite broadband services across Asia.
    Under the direction of Chonlatanon, the company’s IPStar program aims to generate a ramp-up in revenue in 2010, as Thaicom sold nearly 200,000 IPStar user terminals during the year. Chonlatanon discussed the challenges for the operator as it aims to make IPStar a success.

Chonlatanon: We are very positive about Asia. Many countries are seeing a turnaround in the economy after the world financial crisis, and consumer confidence is picking up. That will spur demand for broadband and broadcast services. Thaicom is in a good position, as we have investments in both markets, especially the broadband, having the only commercial broadband satellite, Thaicom-4 (IPStar), in the region capable of 45 Gbps. We have placed a significant bet on broadband satellite, and we have seen double-digit growth in the past years for broadband services. Broadband as a whole, whether in the form of terrestrial or wireless 3G, has really taken off in most parts of Asia. This, combined with the still relatively poor last-mile infrastructure in many parts of Asia, is where we feel there is a great opportunity for broadband satellite services as backhaul or directly to the premises. 

Chonlatanon: The issue of rain fade is not significant at all due to mitigation techniques that we have successfully implemented, such as having a diversity gateway RF site in addition to the main gateway. Many major telcos and corporates, with their high SLA requirements, are our end users. The slightly lower availability compared to traditional C-band VSAT networks is compensated by the significant cost reduction and scalability of our system.

Chonlatanon: Others in the region have been focusing on the tried-and-true broadcasting market and expanding their reach and capturing the growing demand of HD distribution. Even though our broadcast satellite is a cash cow and provides us with a steady stream of revenues, significant growth for us in the future will come from the broadband sector.

Chonlatanon: We believe that our core strength is in providing satellite services for the Asia-Pacific market. We have a long-term relationship with our customers here in this region. Besides, our main focus will be with filling up the Thaicom-4 satellite, just launched just over three years ago and the largest broadband satellite in the world. With IPStar we have reached a significant milestone, having landed in all 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and in 2010 onwards, we will be focusing on filling up the bandwidth. Apart from that, we are looking at the opportunity from other orbital slots that cover Africa and the Middle East.
 

Chonlatanon: Now that we have commercial landing in all territories, our biggest challenge is to quickly ramp up services to fill up our Thaicom-4 bandwidth so that we can reach breakeven before the end of this year.