Thailand Increases the Number of MVNOs

The Thai telecommunications regulatory authorities have recently outlined several urgent policies that will increase the number of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) as an alternative to the country’s three mobile operators.
Sarana Boonbaichayapruck, Chairman of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) of Thailand, announced the “One Region, One Mobile Virtual Network Operator” (MVNO) plan, which will create four more MVNO before 2026. The goal is to provide an MVNO for each region.
Sarana stated that creating MVNO for four regions can complement the mobile services provided by True Corporation, Advanced Information Service (AIS), and National Telecom (NT).
The National Telecommunication Commission also revealed plans to implement free access to national digital services nationwide by 2026, allowing Thai people to use basic national services in mobile tariffs without paying internet fees.

With the entry of new regional MVNO into the market, the monthly connection fees for mobile users in provincial areas of Thailand will be reduced. The Bangkok Post quoted Salana as saying that mobile tariffs in rural areas are expected to decrease by 20% from now to 2026.
However, according to reports, there are still issues with whether the market can sustain new MVNO entrants, as existing AIS and True Corporation jointly serve over 96% of Thai mobile users.
NBTC believes that the new MVNO ecosystem will create opportunities for new businesses such as mobile virtual network aggregators and mobile virtual network enablements.
He said in an interview with The Bangkok Post, “In the mass market, MVNO does not need to only provide basic mobile services because due to the limitations of economies of scale, they cannot compete with larger competitors.”
He added that mobile service operators can operate various mobile based services, such as providing private applications for certain business sectors.
Meanwhile, looking back at the history of MVNO over the past decade, industry observers have expressed doubts about the business feasibility of new entrants. They pointed out that although NBTC regulations prohibit major operators from refusing these rental requests, major operators are not keen on renting out their network capacity to MVNO at lower rents.
MVNO does not have its own cellular network. It leases and resells capacity from third-party mobile network operators at wholesale prices, and resells it to consumers at reduced retail prices under its own commercial brand.
Sarana pointed out that the mobile market in Thailand has undergone changes and now provides more flexible opportunities for the development of MVNO.
For example, when NBTC approves the True-DTAC merger and the merger of TOT and CAT Telecom to form NT, it requires companies participating in these merger transactions to reserve some network capacity for MVNO.

In addition, Thai telecommunications regulatory authorities plan to limit the shareholding of major mobile operators in each regional MVNOs to a maximum of 25%.