Chalita Srinuan

Pricing strategies and innovations in the Thai mobile communications market

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the price plans offered by Thai mobile operators and analyse the role of demand characteristics in the development of new price plans. The paper also shows how demand affects a firms degree of innovativeness in terms of the number of new price plans.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical qualitative analysis is based on an original data set from several secondary data sources and includes all the price plans offered in the history of the Thai mobile communications market between 2002 and 2010.Findings – The results show that mobile operators have introduced several innovative price plans to attract and retain their consumers. Although a greater number of price plans can increase competition among operators, some have complex combinations that may lead to confusion for consumers.Practical implications – A price comparison programme should therefore be implemented by the telecom regulator to ensure that consumers receive correct and complete information ab...

Digital Divide in ASEAN Countries: Explaining the Gap

Currently, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is a vigorous engine of economic growth. While the penetration rate, investment and development of technology have increased considerably, the gap between people in society regarding access, use and benefit from ICT is increasing. In particular, there is unequal access to ICT even though the sector is rapidly diffusing. The present study examines determinants of this digital divide in ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam). To explain the evolution of the ASEAN digital divide, the study focuses on potential causes which are the GDP per capita, the urban proportion of the population, the competition level and the independent regulator. Statistically, the first three of these factors explain the divide in the region concerned while the role of independent regulator is not statistically significant suggesting the need for the more effective role of regulator in conducting the market.

Private costs of delayed privatization of TOT Public Company Limited

The purpose of this paper is to examine the private costs of delaying privatization of TOT Public Company Limited, a state-owned enterprise telephony carrier. n nTo address the private costs of a delay in terms of privatization, a counterfactual forecasting model has been constructed for the years 2007-2012. The starting year of the evaluation is 2006, as this year was the deadline for privatization under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. The forecasting model uses the traditional investment approach as well as scenario analyses. n nThe traditional investment approach and sensitivity analyses provide similar results. Both show that the benefit of delaying the privatization process could be higher than if the WTO-agreed time process for TOT privatization were followed, as the growth of revenue sharing and from concessionaires would be higher than if TOT were privatized. There are no benefits in the long run, however, as the growth rate of revenue in the base case is lower than that in the privatization case, leading to a reduction in the present value of the base case over time: hence, the longer the delay in privatization, the slower the firm growth.

Analysis of Internet Access in Thailand: Drivers and Barriers

Internet usage is growing around the world including in developing countries like Thailand. This study attempts to provide guidance to the National Regulatory Agency (NRA) by addressing the following question: What are the key determinant factors to explain the probability that an individual consumer uses the Internet? The multinomial logit model is employed to examine empirically whether the price of the service, accessibility to fixed telephony infrastructure, socioeconomic variables and area of residence have a systematic link to Internet usage for each technology. The data from a national survey in 2010 by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of Thailand are used for the analysis. Four types of Internet technologies: dial-up, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), mobile broadband and Wi-Fi, are included in this study. Based on the findings, the variables with potential impact are price, fixed infrastructure, income, age of consumer and residential area. The impact of these factors varies across the technologies. The results of this paper are compatible with prior literature, although there are important differences: the infrastructure of fixed telephony is considered an important factor in stimulating Internet usage, and ADSL and mobile Internet connection are still considered to have inelastic prices. A policy recommendation that could encourage competition and growth in Internet usage is the development of a fixed and mobile infrastructure and allowing more competition at infrastructure and service level.

Entry relaxation and an Independent regulator: Performance impact on the mobile telecoms industry in Asia

This chapter examines empirically the effect of entry relaxation on the performance of the mobile telephone firms and the role of regulators in the Asian countries of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand. Two hypotheses are tested: first, that the sector performance (as measured by mobile teledensity) improves after the entry relaxation and establishment of the independent regulator; second, that performance of incumbents declines after the entry relaxation. The sample in this study consists of 14 listed incumbent mobile network operators during 1990–2007. The data are collected from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the World Development Indicators Database (WDI), DataStream and websites of companies. The results show that the macroeconomic variables, entry relaxation and independent regulator variable have significant positive impacts on mobile teledensity. For the second hypothesis, the results show that entry relaxation does not affect the profitability of incumbent firms for either developed or developing countries during the study period, but it affects the operational efficiency and financing. Thus, if the regulatory structure is in place and on time, there will be potential benefits to the mobile telecommunication sector and consumers.