Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

In Thailand, mobile ARPU declines just like any other markets in the world. As of June 2008, average user pays around $6 USD (sub 200 THB) per month for mobile phone service. This is mostly due to the on going price-war, introduced a few years ago.

Voice or Data ?

As of Sep 2008, GSM voice communications still dominates mobile services, just like anywhere else in the world. The minute price in Thailand is considerable one of the cheapest in the world. Data services via SMS and GPRS/EDGE are also available nationwide but are not as popular. The revenue of data service is accounted only around 1.2 % (average of the three major operators) of total service revenue in recent years. Data usage is dominated by SMS service, and GPRS/EDGE usage is not very wide spread in Thailand.

3G services are not yet widely available due to regulation issue.

Postpaid or prepaid ?

Around 90% of mobile subscriptions in Thailand are prepaid. This seems to be a norm for the mobile markets in this region of the world. People just don't want to sign a long-term contract so that they can freely switch to a better price plan/promotion whenever they want. Also, some users find it easier to control their usage in pay-as-you-use fashion. And, from user's point of view, prepaid seems to be more affordable compared to postpaid. From operator's point of view, prepaid eliminates problems of debts and unpaid users. Besides, the advancement of technology makes the investment cost per subscriber for prepaid account cheaper or equal to that of postpaid account.

90% mobile penetration!

The 90% penetration is the figure reported by operators according to the SIM cards distributed in the market. It's worth noting that 90% mobile penetration does not necessarily mean 9 of 10 people possess mobile phones. We know that certain groups of population may not bother to carry a phone. Among these, they are infants, elderly people, those who are hearing impairment, the poors, monks, etc. For example, National Statistical Office (NSO) of Thailand reported 5.8 million (out of 65 million population) are of the age under 6 years old. From my guestimate, these groups of people may be summed up to a quite considerable number. Therefore, the addressable market for mobile phone may be only 70-80% of popoulation. So... how can we reach 90% penetration.

Introduction to mobile market in Thailand

Mobile subscriptions in Thailand exceeded 90% penetration in 2008. (Thailand's population is ~65 million.) All 3 major operators, AIS, DTAC, and True Move, offer GSM/GPRS services. AIS, the market leader, reported over 25 million subscriptions in Q2 2008 (45% market share). DTAC and True Move reported 17 million (30%) and 13 million (23%) subscriptions, respectively. Hutchison Thailand and Thai Mobile have a marginal market share of less than 3%. Hutchison Thailand offers CDMA2000 system while Thai Mobile offers GSM in 1900 MHz band.