NBTC Finally Releases MVNO Promotion Draft for Hearing After 2-Year Slumber and 55 Postponements

The board of Thailand’s telecom regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), has finally approved the entry of the draft regulation to promote Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services into the public hearing phase.

During the recent board meeting, the draft under agenda item 5.2 was cleared for public consultation. While the regulator frames this move as a step to foster market competition and provide alternative choices for consumers, industry insiders view the sudden advancement with profound skepticism.

The sudden progress of this draft regulation comes after a historic period of administrative paralysis, where the crucial telecom item was systematically delayed and frozen for over two years.

Official board records reveal that the agenda item regarding MVNO regulatory updates was postponed more than 55 times since its first inclusion on July 17, 2024.

Throughout consecutive meetings, the board repeatedly bypassed the item using a boilerplate statement indicating that the meeting did not consider the agenda and that the NBTC office would carry it over as a pending item for the next session.

This prolonged stalling strategy effectively paralyzed the market, leaving MVNO candidates to navigate an increasingly monopolistic landscape without actionable rules.

The economic consequences of this two-year regulatory delay have been severe for the Thai telecom sector.

More than 65 licensed MVNO operators, who rely entirely on wholesaling network capacity from major infrastructure providers, faced heavy financial losses and gradual market foreclosure due to the complete lack of fair wholesale price references or robust competitive safeguards.

In August 2025 the MVNO market collapsed when the NBTC auctioned the only spectrum the MVNOs was able to use to the duopoly of AIS and True, who have avoided hosing MVNOs despite their license mandating they must provide at least 10% capacity to MVNOs.

After the merger of True and Dtac 3 years ago, merger conditions include a mandate for 20% of capacity to MVNOs. No MVNOs have been able to launch despite several dispute cases that NBTC has dragged on.

While the NBTC board has now technically removed the draft from its backlog to satisfy legal and public pressure, the MVNA, MVNE, MVNO industry continues to watch with caution to see whether the post-hearing process will face another round of bureaucratic foot-dragging or if a definitive, binding enforcement will finally materialize.