Thai Mobile Market Revenues to Fall by Almost 10% by 2007 as Operators Compete on Cost in Land Grab
Added: (Tue Feb 28 2006)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Data from Wireless World Forum’s “Thailand Mobile Market” statistical handbook shows that despite increasing subscriber numbers, falling ARPU will hit mobile revenues as operators reduce prices in order to gain a bigger share of the Thai mobile user base.
Although penetration will climb to just under 70% by 2007, ARPU will fall from a current $10.60 pcm to $7.3 pcm, contributing to a decline in overall market revenues of almost 10%. Although voice ARPU is in decline, data ARPU will account for an increasing proportion of overall ARPU as mobile messaging grows into a half-billion dollar market by 2007.
In 2005, three out of four Thai operators saw their top line hit by falling ARPU. AIS and Hutch also experienced negative subscriber growth in the more lucrative post-paid market. Prepay continues to be the more popular choice with Thai consumers, outnumbering postpaid accounts by a ratio of almost 6:1.
The future challenge for Thai operators will be to implement strategies to reverse the downward trend in ARPU whilst preserving their market share in the face of stiff competition.
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Wireless World Forum is a network of over 6,000 senior executives in the wireless industry in 99 countries. Established in 2001, the Forum provides research and analysis on telecoms, media and IT trends.
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Contact
Jan Kuczynski, Analyst
jan.kuczynski@w2forum.com
Wireless World Forum
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Keywords
Thailand, Reports, Wireless, Telecoms, ARPU, mobile, content, cellular, survey, data, statistics, SMS, games, ringtones, Asia, Asia-Pacific