Thailand's top two mobile operators said on December 22 they had enough capacity to maintain their leading position even though they failed to win new 4G spectrum licences in an auction recently.
The entry of Jasmine International, one of the auction winners, has changed the landscape of Thailand's $6.7 billion mobile sector, which has been dominated by three companies - Advanced Info Services (AIS), Total Access Communication (TAC) and True Move, part of True Corp.
Competition is expected to intensify, adding to pressure on operators' profits and dividend payouts, analysts said.
Second-ranked TAC said it planed to invest at least 20 billion baht ($555 million), mostly on expanding 4G network nation-wide in 2016 when it aimed for subscribers of 4.5 million, doubling from 2.2 million this year.
"We will fight like never before," TAC Chief Executive Lars Norling told a news conference.
TAC, controlled by Norway's Telenor, plans to expand its 3G coverage to 94-95 percent of Thai population and will roll out aggressive marketing plans to shift current customers and attract new ones, Norling said.
The company aimed to boost the number of its mobile internet users to 80 percent of total in 2016 from 50 percent now, he said adding TAC is willing to invest in future auctions to acquire more spectrum.
Sigve Brekke, Telenor's President and CEO said in a statement Telenor would continue to invest in Thailand.
TAC has bandwidth capacity of 50MHz, while market leader AIS has capacity of 30MHz.
Third-ranked True has the highest capacity of 55MHz after winning two 4G licences in November and at the auction last week. New player Jasmine has capacity of 10MHz.
AIS and TAC had set a ceiling on bidding prices at 75 billion baht and 70 billion baht respectively, the companies said.
AIS has options to preserve financial flexibility for other future investment and its decision not to bid more in the auction would boost its financial strength, CEO Somchai Lertsutiwong said in a separate news conference.
AIS, which has 38 million subscribers, aimed to maintain its 52 percent market share and planned to offer free handset upgrade for 2G subscribers from December 25 in a bid to accelerate a shift to 3G and 4G network, Somchai said.
AIS, 23 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd , will have 15MHz more bandwidth from its partnership with state-controlled TOT, he said.
Somchai said AIS was committed to pay dividend at 100 percent of net profit this year.
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