True Move’s (somewhat) New Flagship Store/Hangout

In Thailand, the omnipresent TRUE technology company, which swallowed up the largest cable/satellite TV provider UBC before going on to offer mobile phone service, WiFi hotspots, ipTV, and high-tech coffee shops in addition to its core broadband internet service, has opened its “flagship store” under the true move brand.

This 4-story monster of a store/coffee-shop/internet-café/radio-station/video recording studio (yes, it has all of that) is across the street from Siam Discovery (near Siam Paragon, and the Siam BTS station). The first floor has a sort of museum-timeline of mobile telephony and data (see the photo above right), dating back to the luggable carphones of 1992, right up to the still non-existent 3G service, which is allegedly on-track for early 2009. You can read my earlier blog post to see how much faith I put in that!

There’s also a “Touch SIM Station”, for those lucky True Mobile customers with a touch-enabled SIM. I’m not sure quite what services are on offer if you touch your SIM to the 2001-esque black monolith of plastic, but nobody seemed to be using it anyway. There’s also a nice Starbucks-style café, much like the True Move store in Paragon, and tons of gadgets, toys, iPod-compatible neck-pillows (yes, really!), doggy-shaped speakers, and tons of phones. There’s tons of seating, especially if you don’t mind sitting next to gangs of 13-year old boys playing FPS games on large flat-screens.

If you’re just looking for a place to plop down with a notebook and work, they do sell internet access by the minute (in minimum 20-minute increments, for 20 baht – about 65 cents U.S. at today’s rates). You can also sign up for WiFi plans, ADSL, mobile service, etc. The 3rd floor has what the brochure calls a “See Through Fitting Room”, which I’m thinking sounds like a very bad idea, unless it’s not what it sounds like.

On the top floor, behind a gigantic and heavy door, are more tables, and a full-on video/TV studio, complete with gigantic ceiling-mounted lighting and a half-dozen very expensive-looking digital TV cameras, with that “1080p HD” logo on their sides. Downstairs, 99.5 FM is broadcasting from a glass-walled room, with the DJ surrounded by an audiophile’s dream’s worth of equipment, plus a half-dozen laptops.

This store is definitely far, far larger than the other True Move stores I’ve seen, as befits its “flagship” designation. A lot of the tables even have mobile phones there to play with, anchored to the tables with umbilical cords. Definitely a place to get some work done in a nice, air-conditioned place with a steady source of caffeine, power outlets and WiFi access. The actual address is:

232/5, 234 Siam Square soi 2
Patumwan, Bangkok 10330
Tel: 02-658-4449.