dtac story

dtac’s Photos of the Year

The year 2020 has been repeatedly described as unprecedented—and Time Magazine even dubbed it “the worst year ever”. But it’s also been an opportunity to reflect on our priorities in life.More than ever before, dtac’s twin purposes of “Connecting you to what matters most” and “Empowering societies,” have felt critical to Thailand.As 2020 ends, dtacblog has compiled images retracing some of the year’s defining moments. Think of it as one last look in the rearview mirror as 2021 brings a fresh start. “We were on the frontlines,” Wasan Chanplab, Head of Field Network Operations BMA at dtac.Picture 1 : At the height of the April 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand, the Field Network Operations BMA’s team rushed to Siriraj Hospital to perform service maintenance. Not only dtac’s network teams worked tirelessly to ensure doctors, nurses and other hospital staff remained connected, but dtac would go on to partner with Siriraj Hospital to onboard chronic patients to the Siriraj Connect application.“We couldn’t let COVID-19 disrupt dtac services—particularly in a hospital. Our team worked even harder to ensure the network was fine. There is no day off in such a crisis. We are on standby round the clock. And we are proud…

dtac CEO: zero corruption is fundamental to dtac’s right to operate

Many businesses require a specific license to operate, be it an architecture firm, a hospital or a large restaurant. As CEO of dtac, I work in an industry where the licensing process is particularly stringent and touches on almost every aspect of our business, from the installation of base stations to the rights governing our use of Thailand’s airwaves. But the license I value the most is dtac’s social license. And it is my firm belief that fighting corruption is fundamental to dtac’s right to operate. FREE AND INVALUABLE What is a social license? Unlike government issued licenses, a social license to operate is not a piece of paper. It refers to acceptance of our company’s right to operate by all our stakeholders: the general public, our customers, the media, the government, our shareholders, our employees, etc. And in observance of the International Anti-Corruption Day 2020 on December 9, 2020, I wanted to share how dtac strives to maintain its social license to operate through strict policies against all forms of graft and influence. For spectrum alone, dtac has committed to over 100 billion baht in payments to the Thai government in the last three years. But unlike spectrum licenses,…

dtac Think Hai d: The movement to make mobile phones sustainable

Amidst the rising numbers of handset sales each year, mobile phone makers and retailers are adopting sustainability principles in their value chains. dtac as a key player of value chain of mobile telecommunication industry, is taking a serious action against e-waste disposal through Think Hai d, the initiative encouraging responsible disposal of e-waste. Thailand is considered a country with high mobile internet penetration rates. There are 93.7 million phone numbers, accounting for 133% of its total population. Handset sales stand at 14.1 million annually – with around 100,000 for first time users and the rest for replacement. Replacements alone represent 20 percent of Thailand’s total population on a yearly basis. Peerapol Chatanantavej, Head of Device Portfolio & Device Expert at Total Access Communications Plc or dtac, said, “The boom in sales of handsets over the past decade was mainly caused by the evolution of technology and the tendency of consumers to want a device with more applications. The role of mobile phones is becoming more critical to people’s daily lives.” As the role and features of handset evolve over time, its use reached beyond an IT device for connectivity and became a measurement of social status, driven by factors like…

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Inspects the 5G Smart Farmer Exhibition

On 3 November 2020, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn recently presided over the opening of the Intelligent Operation Center at the Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation, Wangchan Valley Project (EECi @ Wangchan Valley Project) and inspected the progress of the project. Upon this occasion, Princess Sirindhorn also inspected the exhibitions of various agencies including that of dtac. Mr. Sharad Mehrotra, CEO of Total Access Communication PCL or dtac, was honored to welcome Princess Sirindhorn to dtac’s exhibition and presented how the 5G IoT Smart Farmer solution can lift Thai agriculture. The event took place at the Intelligent Operation Center of PTT’s EECi @ Wangchan Valley Project in Rayong Province. The dtac 5G Smart Farmer solution features smart meters, AI-enabled smart cameras and remotely operated drones. Developed in partnership with Ericsson (Thailand) Ltd., Setha Mongkol 2007 (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Dynamic Intelligence Asia Co., Ltd. and VST ECS Co., Ltd., these tools can increase yields and reduce costs for Thai farmers.

Smart Energy Management: dtac’s IoT solution for uninterrupted power

dtac has partnered with Asefa to jointly develop Smart Monitoring and Service Care for Main Distribution Boards (MDB). The cooperation between ASEFA and dtac makes power monitoring more accessible, ensuring uninterrupted power for its users. “You’ve experienced blackouts before. Without power, the temperature quickly rises in homes and offices, computers go dark—you might even get trapped in a lift. When blackouts strike the industrial sector, imagine how much damage they cause. Such scenarios underline the importance of power distribution. It affects all activities in our lives. Power distribution systems must therefore be efficient, safe and stable,” said Phaiboon Angkanakornkul, Managing Director of Asefa Plc. The newly developed solution with dtac features real-time monitoring with simple-to-understand readouts to monitor temperature and humidity. Moreover, the solution can also forecast power demand, display real-time power consumption monitoring and also increase power efficiency. Power: The Key for Digital Transformation Asefa makes main distribution electric switch boards, automatic control system, power management systems, along with after-sales and related engineering services. These are used in industrial plants and medium to large buildings with high power demand needs. The Main Distribution Boards (MDBs) take power from the transformers and channel them to smaller boards. Just like how…

Nakul Sehgal appointed CFO of dtac

dtac's board of directors has approved the appointment of Mr. Nakul Sehgal as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Mr. Sehgal replaces Mr. Dilip Pal, who is already announced to leave dtac by 31 October 2020. Mr. Sehgal comes with extensive experience in telecom, most recently as the Corporate Chief Financial Officer of Bharti Airtel. He has previously held CFO positions in Digi.com (Malaysia), Telenor Hungary and Telenor India. Mr. Sehgal also has consulting experience working with Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers prior to joining the industry. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Delhi. Commenting on the appointment of Mr. Sehgal, Sharad Mehrotra, CEO of dtac, said: “I am extremely pleased to have Nakul Sehgal join the dtac team. In addition to his strong track record as CFO in companies across multiple markets, . I know Nakul as a strong leader focused on performance and efficiency. With his background, Nakul will be able to add value to dtac and our customers from day one.” Commenting on his decision to join dtac, Mr. Sehgal said: “dtac has been at the forefront of innovation and digitalization, while achieving great results in challenging…

Connecting patients and doctors through dtac’s call center

Thailand will become a “full-fledged aged society” in the next 10 years, with one fourth of Thais being older than 60 years. Such demographic trend has significant impacts on public-health services in the regard to the number of patients and the frequency of medical visits. It is going to be more difficult to produce more health professionals to maintain the balance between the demand and supply in the public-healthcare sector by then. Without the balance, Thais’ needs for healthcare services may not be fulfilled with solid quality in the future. To prevent the unwanted situation from happening, Smart Hospital concept has emerged. Many medical facilities have now embraced digital technologies in their bid to increase the efficiency of services and cost management. While these providers of healthcare services seek to better control the cost that has kept rising, they make significant efforts to uphold safety and quality.“Siriraj Hospital”, one of Southeast Asia’s biggest medical facilities, has over 2,000 beds to accommodate inpatients. Each year, it has treated more than 3.8 million services. Siriraj Hospital’s deputy director Assoc. Prof. Cherdchai Nopmaneejumruslers tells dtac blog that his hospital’s five-year strategy (2020 – 2024) has a key goal of transforming Siriraj into a…

How Thailand’s mom and pop shops support mobile connectivity in their communities

Every day the 34-year-old Tew-Weerayuth Puthawong rises at dawn to get ready before the first customers arrive. Many stop by on their way to work to top-up their mobile phones at his shop in a small village in Phan, a district of Thailand’s Chiang Rai province. And although Mr. Weerayuth serves his customers on a wheelchair, he never lets physical limitations prevent him from connecting his customers to what matters most.When the country was hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, resulting in a city lockdown, data usage grew five times faster in the provinces and residential areas than in central Bangkok. Many people who moved back to their hometown have chosen to remain there as the economic downturn continues. This has made mobile refills in small villages a critical service. “Many people came home during COVID and never went back or tried to find a job in town. Some people run their own business or help their parents on farming and raising livestock. And not everyone has internet at home, so they came looking for prepaid data sims at my shop,” Mr. Weerayuth explained. Several years ago, Mr. Weerayuth, an online gamer, decided to reach out to the dtac sales team…

This green bike share startup fulfills Chiang Mai’s smart city vision.

Thailand’s Northern capital of Chiang Mai is famous for its laidback, slow-life charms. Fittingly, lively green bicycle docking stations branded Anywheel began popping up in the hip Nimman neighborhood and the old town. They belong to a Singaporean startup which seeks to reduce the growing car usage that threatens to ruin Chiang Mai’s quality of life. As the city now faces major challenges of traffic congestion and air quality, luring locals back to bikes is a daunting challenge for a startup of its size. To find out more, we travelled to Chiang Mai to meet Seet Rui Jie, the 29-year-old general manager of Anywheel Singapore, and understand how Chiang Mai can be reborn into a greener, smarter city. The green service Anywheel was founded by its current CEO, the entrepreneur Htay Aung. The company has been offering bike share services for more than three years in Singapore, Malaysia, and most recently in Thailand. Its goal is to provide a fun, affordable, and environmentally-friendly transport alternative. To do this, Anywheel works with both public and private entities to install bike docking stations, equipped with bikes that are durable and easy-to-use.“We want people to be able to get to different parts of…

How Thai businesses are relying on connectivity to bounce back

This is a guest post from Rajiv Bawa, Chief Business Officer at dtac. After months of lockdown, casual face-to-face interactions are back. Meeting with clients in a more relaxed setting has allowed me to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them and how they’re fighting back. We dubbed these interactions “Delight Moments,” as they allowed us to show our empathy for the difficulties businesses are enduring right now. They’ve all had to pivot and reinvent themselves in different ways. But one common theme is that their view of mobile connectivity is forever changed. The lockdown triggered the realization that organizations can keep on functioning despite their people working from home. The amount of mobility may vary for each industry, but everyone now believes that being flexible and mobile is a critical need that isn’t going away. And they see a need for new tools to do this well. For some industries, such as logistics, machine to machine communications can bring much needed efficiencies to cope with the surge in e-Commerce. And we are also seeing a heightened need for secured networks outside of the office. That being said, basic mobile connectivity remains the top requirement for all our partners.…

Filter by :

Sort by :