DTAC, the second largest mobile operator in Thailand, made a deal with Nokia Siemens Network today, in order to upgrade its network in an environmental-friendly way. The Swedish-German joint venture will deploy no less than 1,500 Flexi base stations for DTAC's GSM/EDGE network, allowing the Thai operator to enhance its services and coverage, while at the same time using energy-efficient solutions.

The Flexi Base Station technology provided by Nokia Siemens Networks lowers the costs of managing a nationwide network and can lead to energy savings of up to 70%. Also, this technology enables DTAC to use various software features, improving the overall wireless communication quality.

Rolf Marthinusen, CTO of DTAC, said about the new collaboration with Nokia Siemens: "As a responsible corporation, we need to be conscious of the environment in which we operate and do our best in adopting green solutions, where possible. Nokia Siemens Networks solutions based on the Flexi base station let us reduce adverse effects on the environment, while providing a cost efficient high performing network."

"Operators are increasingly looking at us to help them improve overall efficiency in their business. Our Flexi Base Station technology provides several advantages in terms of the overall cost of operating the network and has accordingly met with tremendous response from our customers", completed Suwit Pruckwattananon, Head of DTAC Customer Team at Nokia Siemens Networks Thailand.

Subsidiary of Telenor, the Norway-based global operator, DTAC currently offers GSM and EDGE services to about 16 million users, being behind AIS (Advanced Info Services), which has almost 23 million customers, but ahead of True Move (11 million customers).

Out of 63 million people who live in Thailand, only about 49 million own one or more cell phones. This leaves around 14 million new potential users for the country's current operators and with the new network upgrade made in collaboration with Nokia Siemens, DTAC hopes to attract as many new subscribers as possible.