Thais caught up in surging demand for mobile data
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THAILAND is being swept up by the global trend of skyrocketing mobile data traffic, Harald Preiss, head of North Asia at Nokia Networks, said recently.
Thailand’s mobile data usage now is about one gigabyte per user per month, more than double the 300 megabytes or so a month seen in 2013. Preiss said personalised data consumption would continue to double worldwide every year to 1GB per user per day in 2020.
Thailand will follow the trend because people here really love using mobile data and smartphone penetration is very high. Telecoms have already offered 3G-2.1GHz and 4G-2.1GHz services to their subscribers to give them mobile broadband data access.
“Most vendors have already rolled out their 4G devices to the market. There are around 40 million 3G/4G smartphones in Thailand, 25 per cent of which are 4G-enabled devices, which is around 10 million mobile devices in the Thai market,” he said.
With the 4G spectrum licence auction expected to happen by the middle of this year, the LTE (long-term evolution) network equipment market will be busy from early this year.
Demand for wireless data consumption will continue to grow with the expansion of 3G coverage by telecoms, the increase in the number of smartphone users and heavy discounts on devices and data bundles.
For the wired market, there will be huge competition in the FTTX (fibre-to-the-x) business. Copper technology has limits and has reached the end of its lifecycle. All broadband Internet service providers will push the FTTX market.
Mobile spectrum-licence allocation is still the key to Thailand’s 4G roadmap. Some operators have already reached their bandwidth limit, so more is needed.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) had planned to auction the 12.5 MHz bandwidth of TrueMove and the same bandwidth of Digital Phone Co (DPC) in the 1,800MHz spectrum last year, to be followed by the auction of Advanced Info Service’s 17.5MHz bandwidth in the 900MHz spectrum in the same year.
However, after seizing power last year, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) ordered the NBTC to postpone the auction for one year.
Information and Communications Technology Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa said last week that the NBTC could go ahead and auction the TrueMove and DPC 1800MHz spectrum bands once it is approved by the NCPO.
However, the 900MHz auction might have to wait for the final adjustment of responsibilities and oversight involving the ministry and the NBTC.
When asked if Thailand would lose a great business opportunity if the auction has to be further delayed from 2015, Preiss said the first thing to do was look at what 4G can do for business.
“It provides at least five to 10 times faster communication speeds for everyone. With a 4G-enabled business, all businesses are connected because of the impact on productivity and flexibility (a faster rate with an increase in products and services being offered),” he said.
“The improved user experience will also hasten the uptake of LTE-enabled devices as well as the existing applications that already work on mobile devices, such as large file transfer, video conferences, healthcare services.
“Therefore, we expect that the industry would be able to generate huge revenue from this 4G-enabled business,” he said.
When asked about network market competition in Thailand and worldwide, Preiss said that when looking at market dynamics, the competitive environment and the challenges that operators are facing, Nokia Networks’ strategy is to build on its current momentum while transforming itself to serve the operator of the future.
The target is to grow slightly faster than the market over the long term, create best-in-class, high quality products and services, and deliver on profitability goals.
“Nokia Networks is the global leader in LTE. We have 159 commercial LTE references around the world. As a LTE/TD-LTE (Time-division Long-Term Evolution) radio supplier to nine out of the 10 largest LTE operators, Nokia Networks can help operators in Thailand to implement the 900/1800/2100 LTE networks in the fastest and most cost efficient way.
“Nokia Networks can help operators further strengthen their LTE leadership in Thailand by delivering some unique differentiators to the other LTE suppliers,” he said.
