Better Tools Makes for Better Work: True Uses QRun for a Fast FTTx Roll-out

An Overview of True

True was founded in 1991. It is backed by the Chia Tai Group. In its ownership structure, the Chia Tai Group has a 56 percent shareholding, the public 26 percent, and China Mobile 18 percent. The chairman of the board of True is Mr. Dhanin Chearavanont, who also serves as president of the Chia Tai Group.
True operates fixed line services under a build-transfer-operate (BTO) concession with TOT. In 1995, True launched a pay TV service. In 2002, True launched cellular service. In 2003, it launched broadband service. In 2009, it started to provide 850 MHz 3G service.
Now True is the largest full service operator, the second largest mobile operator, and the largest broadband operator in Thailand.
True provides mobile, broadband and pay TV services under the brands TrueMobile, TrueOnline and TrueVisions respectively.
True has 25 million mobile subscribers. In 2015, True began to upgrade its 2G and 3G networks to 4G, supported by a comprehensive frequency portfolio comprising of   900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz. Its 4G, 3G and 2G networks cover 98% of the Thai population.
True has 3 million broadband subscribers. It has a mature optical network in Bangkok. The focus of the next stage is developing subscribers in other parts of Thailand. 
For TV service, True has 4 million subscribers, of whom, about 2 million are pay-TV users.

True's New Broadband Plan

Thailand is a favorite tourist destination in Southeast Asia. Its economy has been growing steadily in recent years and there is a rising demand for bandwidth-hungry services. FTTx has greater market potential than copper broadband in Thailand. 
Since AIS started to develop its fixed broadband network in July 2014, competition between different operators has become more intense. True's fixed-line and mobile services used to be carried by different networks. Due to fierce market competition and lower ARPU, True needed to integrate its fixed and mobile networks to reduce TCO and to attract more subscribers at a lower cost.
In 2015, True decided to use GPON-based FTTx to modernize its copper broadband network after a series of tests and trials. It plans to achieve an FTTx + VDSL network architecture in three years. For commercial and high-end users, True uses the FTTH solution. For ordinary users, due to the limitations of ODN deployment, it uses the FTTB + VDSL Vectoring solution to compete with the ADSL/VDSL access method provided by other operators. In this way, True can not only reinforce its position in the fixed market but also make full use of existing copper resources to reduce Capex and Opex efficiently.

Fast Service Delivery

In July 2015, ZTE started to collaborate with True to deploy GPON. ZTE's rapid logistics system offered a favorable condition for large-scale GPON deployment, and True was more determined to pursue rapid implementation of FTTx.  
While the FTTx network was being deployed rapidly, service provisioning became a huge challenge for True. The traditional service delivery system can't meet the growth demands of FTTx subscribers. True was very concerned about two issues. First was the impact on existing broadband services. Its outlets needed to adapt to the new broadband and the new services needed to be compatible with the existing ones. Second was obtaining more users. True needed a customized OSS system that supports rapid FTTx deployment and service promotion and also makes O&M easy.
Considering these requirements, ZTE provided a customized OSS system solution—QRun.
During the FTTx deployment, ZTE built a powerful OSS system for True that simplifies service provisioning and helps True grow new subscribers nationwide. True outlets have achieved an almost zero error rate on provisioning and maintenance.  

Conclusion

As the largest broadband operator in Thailand, True has kept its leading status with the strategic FTTx deployment. By leveraging ZTE's QRun solution, True has achieved rapid deployment and operation of an urban fiber network, ensuring its growth in the Thai broadband market.