Thailand's growth future after the success of its 3G auction

Thailand's growth future after the success of its 3G auction PR Newswire BANGKOK, Oct. 18, 2012 BANGKOK, Oct. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Due to current concession structure which has limited Thai operators in providing 3G, the success of the auction held on October 16 will free them up from the existing chain. The operating structure will change and they need not to have obligations in infrastructure transfer and revenue sharing with state-own enterprises. Therefore, this auction literally and legally permits the operators to walk out of the existing concession agreement at no fault. That's why all 3 operators have been looking forward to this since the last attempt few years ago, when it got bogged down by TOT and CAT, which are state-own enterprise. Monsinee Keeratikrainon Ph.D., the Country Manager of Frost & Sullivan (Thailand) mentioned that, "The success of the Thailand 3G auction will boost Thailand's economy and create jobs within the ICT value chain, from application to platform, up to infrastructure services. Overall, Thailand should see around 1%-1.5% incremental increase from having 3G in the overall GDP next year." As the ARPU (Average Price per Unit) of voice service keeps dropping, operators in Thailand have been struggling in enhancing their data revenue. With 3G, they will be able to offer more variety in the kind of services to compensate with the loss in voice and SMS revenue.