Thai users' daily mobile data use is on track to reach one gigabyte by 2020 in line with the global growth rate and 75 times present use, says the local subsidiary of Finland's Nokia Networks.
Growth of Thailand's daily mobile data use is incredible and on track to reach one gigabyte per user by 2020, says Mr Preiss
"Who knows where Thailand will be in 2020?" said Harald Preiss, head of Nokia Solutions and Networks (Thailand).
As of May 31, Thailand had 28 million Facebook users representing 40% of the population, ranking the country third in the world.
Bangkok has more Facebook users than any other city in the world, while the country ranks second in Asia-Pacific for the number of YouTube viewers.
Thailand has almost 40 million smartphones, of which 25% are 4G-enabled devices. This represents huge mobile data growth, particularly for 4G service.
Thai users consume an average of 400 megabytes of data per month, while its European peers consume less than 200 MB.
"The current unprecedented growth is incredible," said Mr Preiss, who is responsible for the company's Asia North division, which covers Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
"One thing for sure, these figures tell that local mobile operators need to constantly find ways to stay ahead of this growth, while continuing to improve their network and quality of service. We believe a Thai will consume 1 GB per day by 2020, up from an average of 400 MB a month this year."
Video content will drive this spectacular mobile traffic growth.
Mr Preiss said Thailand was the biggest spender on mobile networks in the Asia North division despite delaying 4G licence auctions for one year.
He credited this achievement to the aggressive 3G network roll-out of the three major mobile operators.
Local telecom consultancy Yozzo Co said Thailand set a world record in migrating 2G subscribers to 3G last year, taking less time than even Japan.
Some 30% of the country's existing 95 million 2G customers shifted to 3G in only five months.
As of April 30, Thailand had 25 million internet users, while the number of home broadband households was 5.5 million or 7.86% of the population.
Mr Preiss believes consumer and business demand for mobile data will continue to grow exponentially.
The popularity of social media video content will continue to see an upward trend and the smartphone market to enjoy healthy growth, he said.
Thai users spend an average of 176 minutes a day using their mobiles compared with 96 minutes on their notebooks, 95 minutes on their tablets and 78 minutes watching TV.
Local mobile operators are on the verge of increasing data network speed and capacity to acquire greater market share and revenue to compensate for lost voice traffic, Mr Preiss said.
Data revenue accounted for 31% of operators' overall revenue last year, up from 23% in 2012.
At the same time, voice service revenue made up 53.6% of the total, down from 63.8%.
Mr Preiss said to chase mobile data growth aggressively, Thailand must increase spectrum availability and enhance network efficiency by combining national network infrastructure into a shared pool of infrastructure resources.
Carrier aggregation capability, also known as LTE Advanced or 4G Plus, can deliver greater network capacity and spectrum use.
The carrier aggregation technology, which started accelerating last year, has the ability to offer high-quality service for next-generation multimedia support, Mr Preiss said.