Thailand 3G auction concludes; strong growth in mobile advertising expected

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) reportedly sold a total of nine licences to Thailand’s three major telecom players. The service is expected to be available within 60 days.

It’s an important development for the market where, despite healthy penetration of smartphones, 3G implementation has significantly lagged behind other markets regionally.

Supachai Parchariyanon, managing director of full-service digital agency MCFIVA, said the advertising industry is now set to benefit as faster network speeds result in better creative and content on mobile.

“Mobile advertising, video advertising and e-commerce are the areas that will grow significantly after 3G network is implemented,” he said. “In addition, the government should prepare a plan to implement 4G or the LTE network in the future as well, in order to keep the country competitive and keep pace with the other countries."

Clint Easthorpe, CEO, OMG Thailand, agreed the 3G auction will help Thailand catch up with other markets regionally in terms of mobile advertising.

"Up until now we have been a little bit restricted,” he said. “People see what mobile can do but when you try to implement it it can be slow and internet access can be interrupted. With the new technology that shouldn’t really be a problem.”

Easthorpe added that the industry must now work to advise clients in the market about the potential opportunities offered by mobile.

“3G will bring the speed up, but it’s all about testing it and figuring out what you want it to do,” he said. “It’s up to the agency to advise clients on how to best deliver on the mobile platform.”

GfK recently recorded rapid expansion in the smartphone market in Thailand for the first quarter of this year, pointing to 70 per cent growth since a year ago.

Wichit Purepong, general manager of GfK Thailand, said at the time that the rate of adoption would accelerate with the full roll-out of 3G services, predicting the Thai smartphone market to more than double in volume this year.