MVNOs average mobile service pricing in Thailand 2022
- August 2, 2023
- Posted by: Allan Rasmussen
- Category: Insights
The MVNOs average pricing in Thailand 2022.
The MVNOs: Penguin SIM, iKool 3G, Feels and Redone, average mobile service pricing on voice calling, data and SMS in Thailand 2022.
Voice call pricing
In 2022, the average service fee for voice service of the four MVNOs was THB 0.72 per minute, down from the pricing in 2021 of THB 0.77 per minute.
Redone had the lowest average service fee at THB 0.44 per minute while Penguin SIM had the highest average service rate with THB 0.90 per minute.
Note that Redone is informing on its packages that it is rounding up voice call to nearest minute which is against the regulation of billing per second.
The mobile network operators (MNO), TRUE, AIS and NT’s blended price was THB 0.48 per minute.
Penguin SIM’s voice fee is THB 0.08 higher than the maximum allowed retail pricing cap set by the NBTC on 3G (max THB 0.82) and THB 0.21 higher than maximum allowed retail pricing cap on 4G (max THB 0.67).cing significantly for the MNOs
Table 1: MVNOs Average Service Fee Pricing 2022
| MVNO/Service price | VOICE (THB/minute)* | DATA (THB/MB) | SMS (THB/SMS) | MMS (THB/MMS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penguin SIM (Prepaid) | 0.90 | 0.20 | 2.00 | No service |
| I-Kool 3G (Prepaid) | 0.80 | 0.22 | 1.75 | No service |
| Feels (Prepaid) | 0.76 | 0.21 | 1.80 | No service |
| Redone (Postpaid*) | 0.44 | 0.02 | No SMS promotion in main package | No service |
| MVNOs blended | 0.72 | 0.16 | 1.85 | No service |
| MNOs (AIS, TRUE, NT) blended** | 0.48 | 0.09 | 0.68 | 1.83 |
Table 2: MVNOs Average Service Fee Pricing 2021
| MVNO/Service price | VOICE (THB/minute)* | DATA (THB/MB) | SMS (THB/SMS) | MMS (THB/MMS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penguin SIM (Prepaid) | 0.90 | 0.45 | 2.00 | No service |
| I-Kool 3G (Prepaid) | 0.80 | 0.24 | 1.75 | No service |
| Feels (Prepaid) | 0.77 | 0.21 | 1.80 | No service |
| Redone (Postpaid*) | 0.62 | 0.05 | No SMS promotion in main package | No service |
| MVNOs blended | 0.77 | 0.24 | 1.85 | No service |
| MNOs (AIS, TRUE, NT) blended** | 0.60 | 0.16 | 0.89 | 2.33 |
Mobile data pricing
The average service fee for mobile data service of the four MVNOs dropped from THB 0.24 per MB in 2021 to THB 0.16 per MB.
The MNO’s blended price was THB 0.09 per MB.
Redone (*Postpaid) had the lowest average service fee at THB 0.02 per MB due to its reseller revenue agreement with NT.
iKool 3G (Prepaid) had the highest average service rate with THB 0.22 per MB.
In 2022, all the MVNOs were within the maximum allowed retail pricing cap set by the NBTC.
SMS pricing
For SMS service, nothing changed at all during 2022. i-Kool3G still had the lowest average fee with THB 1.75 per SMS while Penguin SIM had the highest average service fee with THB 2.00 per SMS. Redone does not offer SMS promotion as part of its main postpaid package. The average service fee for SMS service of the four MVNOs remained at THB 1.85 per SMS.
Penguin SIM’s SMS fee is THB 0.67 higher than the maximum allowed retail pricing cap set by the NBTC on 3G (max THB 1.33) and THB 0.85 higher than the maximum allowed retail pricing cap on 4G (max THB 1.15).
Feels SMS fee is THB 0.47 higher than the maximum retail pricing cap on 3G (max THB 1.33) and THB 0.65 higher than maximum retail pricing cap on 4G (max THB 1.15).
i-Kool3G SMS fee is THB 0.42 higher than the maximum retail pricing cap on 3G (max THB 1.33)
MMS pricing
None of the MVNOs are able to offer MMS but the average price on MMS from AIS and TRUE in 2022 was THB 1.83 per MMS.
Note!
*Note that the MVNO Redone is postpaid only while the other MVNOs are prepaid only. In addition the wholesale agreement Redone has with its host operator (NT) is based on revenue sharing and reselling which means opposite the other MVNOs they don’t have to worry in the same way about wholesale margins vs pricing.
** The blended average pricing from NBTC on the MNOs does not included the pricing of the sub-brands from AIS’ “GOMO” and TRUE’s sub-brand “Finnmobile” which it should, as it part of the pricing and lowers the blended average pricing significantly for the MNOs.
This is more important than ever this year, as the merger of TRUE and DTAC have to dump their pricing by 12% in line with the merger conditions set by the NBTC. This has however not happened yet, despite the deadline for this was more than 150 days ago.
Speaking of the “regulator” not doing its job, the penalties for not adhering to the regulators maximum retail pricing cap on 3G and 4G (see below), has also had zero consequences.
3G/4G RETAIL PRICE CAP
With the auctioning of the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum in Thailand – the NBTC introduced a maximum retail pricing cap in the market with lower prices on 4G services than 3G, and also changed from charging voice calls per minute to seconds.
Table 3: Reference Rate for 3G/4G services on 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz
| Spectrum/Generation | VOICE (THB/minute)* | DATA (THB/MB) | SMS (THB/SMS) | MMS (THB/MMS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3G Must not exceed | 0.82 | 0.28 | 1.33 | 3.32 |
| 4G Must be lower than | 0.69 | 0.26 | 1.15 | 3.11 |
*All voice calls must be charged on a per-second basis.
The construction of a new unified tariff regulation scheme has been underway for a long time. This transition should result in a regulation policy that corresponds to the current economic state and the convergence of technologies.
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