True Corporation

True Corporation Public Company Limited (SET: TRUE) is a communication conglomerate in Thailand and a subsidiary of the Charoen Pokphand group. True controls Thailand's largest cable TV provider TrueVisions, its largest ISP TrueOnline and its third-largest mobile operator TrueMove.

History

True Corporation was established in 1990 as TelecomAsia. The firm had a strategic partnership with Verizon. The company was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 1993. In 2001, TelecomAsia set up a mobile phone subsidiary with Orange SA. Orange sold off its stake in the venture in 2003 but the Orange brand was still used until 2006. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FGI/is_4_15/ai_n6040967 TA Orange's strategic partner Orange SA sells off 39% of its 49% stake in the Thai mobile operator to TelecomAsia for a nominal one baht | Telecom Asia | Find Articles at BNET.com ] ]

In an effort to converge all its existing telecommunications related business into a single brand, the company renamed itself True Corporation in 2004 and streamlined its operations with subsidiaries AsiaInfonet (renamed True Internet) and Orange (renamed True Move in 2006) amongst others. [ [http://www.truecorp.co.th/eng/about/about_history_2006.jsp True Corporation ] ] It operates fixed-line (as a concessionaire of TOT Plc), wireless, Cable TV, IPTV and Broadband services amongst others.

The company has aggressively pushed itself as an Internet service provider, a broadband and ADSL network. With more than 1 million subscribers, it is now Thailand's largest ISP.

In 2005, True took a higher stake in UBC, Thailand's largest cable television provider, and renamed the network UBC-True. [Amnatcharoenrit, Bamrung and Tortermvasana, Komsan (November 8, 2005). [http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=33025 "True Corp set to take over UBC"] , Bangkok Post (retrieved July 18, 2006 via AsiaMedia.com).] On January 24th 2007 UBC-True was renamed TrueVisions.

Today, True Corporation Public Company Limited, has pushed communication buisineses into one brand, "True", promoting the companies in the form of True Convergence.

True Corporation includes the following subsidiaries :
* True move (Mobile Phone Operater)
* True Online
** SF (Special Force), an online game
** Lineage Online
** True Internet (largest in Thailand, Approx 80% of Bangkok Internet Market)
** True Net Talk
*True Life
** True Coffee
** True Life, online social network (Approximetly 700,000 members)
*True Money (Pay by phone service)
*TrueVisions (Pay TV service)
** True Fantasia
*** True Academy Fantasia (Hit reality show in Thailand)
** Approximetly 8 True's channels on True Visions.
*True Music
** True Music channel
** True Music Radio wave

Other smaller subsidiaries include True Data Center and True Multimedia.

References

External links

* [http://www.truecorp.co.th/ True Corporation]
* [http://www.truemove.com/ True Move]
* [http://www.truecoffee.com/ True Coffee]