History
True Corporation was established on 13 November 1990 as TelecomAsia.[7] The company had a partnership with Verizon.[7] The company was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on December 22, 1993.[8] In 2001, TelecomAsia set up mobile phone subsidiary TA Orange with Orange SA. Orange sold off its stake in 2003 but the Orange brand was used until 2006.[9]
In an effort to converge TelecomAsia's telecommunication business into a single brand, the company renamed itself to True Corporation in 2004,[10] and streamlined its operations with subsidiaries Asia Infonet (renamed True Internet) and Orange (renamed True Move in 2006[11]).
In 2005, True took a higher stake in UBC, Thailand's largest cable television provider that time, and renamed the company to UBC-True.[12] On 24 January 2007, UBC-True was renamed TrueVisions.
On 8 May 2013, TrueMove H became Thailand's first mobile operator to provide 4G LTE commercial service on the 2100 MHz bandwidth.[13]
On 11 September 2014, it was announced that China Mobile agreed to purchase 18 percent of its shares for US$881 million.[14][15]
On 13 November 2014, TrueMove H announced that it allocated 10 billion baht to expand its 4G LTE network in Thailand to cover 80 percent of the country's population.[16]
In June 2015 Suphachai Chearavanont, True's President and CEO, was presented with the "2015 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Telecom CEO of the Year" award in Singapore for his leadership and achievements in developing the telecommunications industry in the Asia Pacific region. In the same month, Chearavanont was elected president of The Telecommunications Association of Thailand.
On 22 November 2021, Charoen Pokphand and Telenor, officially announced they have agreed to explore a USD 8.6 billion merger plan between Thailand's second and third largest telecom operators (by subscribers), True Corporation (TRUE) and Total Access Communication (DTAC) – The proposed merger is subject to regulatory approvals. The merger is expected to be completed by late-September 2022.[17][18] The merger was "acknowledged" by the regulator NBTC at a meeting on 20 October 2022.[19] The newly merged company still retain the True Corporation name, which was founded on 1 March 2023 and it was listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand under the stock ticker symbol TRUE on 3 March 2023.[20]
