Thailand's mobile services will see intense competition next year as third-generation (3G) network coverage widens and low-cost smartphones hit the market.
"By mid-2014, low-end Chinese smartphones will be priced below 1,000 baht, down from more than 1,200 baht now, and this will attract users to migrate from 2G feature phones to 3G models," said Pakorn Pannachet, senior vice-president and head of marketing at Total Access Communication (DTAC), the country's No.2 mobile operator. Mobile data tariffs will be cheaper, and prepaid users will pay the same price for greater data usage.
DTAC foresees a spirited rivalry with True Move H, which gave away free SIM cards with four gigabytes of capacity to customers over the past three months.
For its part, DTAC is offering customised plans for users in the North and Northeast.
Operators are striving to retain existing customers as the country's market nears maturity, with mobile adoption exceeding 136%.
Regulatory officials put the number of mobile subscribers at 90 million out of a population of 70 million. The local mobile industry's churn rate is about 1 million users a month, while 600,000 new customers sign up each month.
DTAC spent 350 million baht this year on customer relationship management, up from less than 50 million baht last year. Of that, 140 million baht went to the "Thank You for Being with Us" campaign, letting existing users convert their years of subscription into a discount when buying a new phone.
The discount ranges from 10 baht for one month of service to 2,400 baht for 20 years.
Out of 27 million DTAC subscribers, 30% already use 3G 2100-megahertz-enabled phones.
The thank-you campaign is aimed at the 5 million customers who have used DTAC service for more than five years and the 3.2 million among them who still use 2G service.
DTAC expects the promotion to sway at least 320,000 users to upgrade their devices. Users can check eligibility by dialling *234#. The campaign ends on Dec 25.
DTAC has 7 million 3G users and predicts 10 million by year-end.