True Corporation is cutting its price by 70% for its 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) fibre internet service to increase its premium group of users and prepare for saturation of the fixed broadband market by 2020.
"We foresee Thailand's fibre internet will reach maturity with 50% penetration of 23 million households using internet, some 11 million accounts, by 2020," said Saharat Kanongsilp, head of commerce for True Online and convergence for True Corp.
Urbanisation and new condominium projects are creating new fibre internet users. The company has found it hard to grow in double digits as the country has wireless broadband as an option.
In terms of value, double-digit growth is possible as users will upgrade service speed and bandwidth capacity to suit their needs, particularly for video, streaming and live broadcast content, he said.
As of the first quarter of 2018, Thailand has nearly 7 million fibre-optic accounts, of which True Online has a leading market share at 42% or 3.1 million accounts.
The company aims to increase its account market share to over 50% by 2020.
In terms of revenue, True Online's market share was over 50% in the first quarter, with projected total revenue of 40 billion baht for 2018.
"In a mature market, companies need to increase premium users who spend over 3,000 baht per month to boost the company's overall revenue," said Mr Saharat.
He said the company introduced a new price band for gigabit broadband services with the "True Fibre 1Gbps" package service, at a starting price of 2,999 baht. Packages at this speed were previously offered at 10,000 baht.
Three new packages are being offered in a bundle with True Sim or True Vision, valued at over 5,000 baht. The service will be available in the Bangkok area and rolled out nationwide by the third quarter.
The packages are designed for big families who use multiple connected devices, particularly streaming video, gaming, live broadcasting and high-resolution content such as 4K.
True aims to increase its number of premium users who spend around 3,000 baht per month. This customer group last year accounted for 3-4% of the company's total users, and True hopes for 10% by this year.
Mr Saharat said the average mainstream fibre speed of 50 megabit per second (Mbps) is expected to increase to 100 Mbps and 150 Mbps in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The company previously announced a three-year investment plan for a nationwide fibre internet network from 2017-19 worth 33 billion baht.