Mobile users in Thailand grow on discount

Posted by Erina Lin on August 1, 2007 at 10:56 PM

The local mobile phone market in Thailand is going bullish this year, with new subscribers nearly reaching seven million in the first half, representing two-thirds of the total numbers for the whole year in 2006.

Up to 12 million new customers are expected in 2007, mostly driven by a new wave of online and offline tariff promotions, which encourage users to have more than one subscription benefit from cheaper rates.

In spite of the gloomy economic growth, the new mobile subscribers in Thailand still grew 18 percent in the first half of this year. This skyrocketing growth encouraged the major operators to revise their forecasts.

Sigve Brekke, the chief executive of DTAC, one of the top three operators, said the high numbers indicate real increased demand from customers who want to have two SIM cards to take advantage on cheap on-net promotions.

However, Brekke also said the average revenue per user in his company declined slightly even as customers made more calls, due to very cheap on-net tariff offerings.

"We expect to have up to four million new customers this year, which would bring our total to 16 million subscribers," he said.