Frost & Sullivan says, 'Smart Thailand' is a Vision to Boost the Adoption of Broadband Services in Thailand

BANGKOK, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- In association with the Ministry Of Information and Communication Technology of Thailand (MICT) Frost & Sullivan will be launching the Thailand Telecoms International Summit on April 27, 2010 at the Sofitel Centara Grand Bangkok.

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With five mobile operators the Thailand telecoms space has long-benefited from a competitive wireless market. As a result, today, the country's wireless penetration rate has been pushed to over 100 percent. This figure stands as one of the highest penetration rates for any emerging market in Asia.

Thailand has made substantial progress towards reforming its telecoms regulatory regime following the inception of an independent regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), in 2004. Though significant challenges over licensing persist, rising demand for mobile internet data, coupled with increasing focus by operators in creating new revenue streams, has been driving customers to shift from 2G to 2.5G.

Looking ahead, with the expected licensing and commercial launch of 3G and WiMAX in 2010, Thailand's highly competitive mobile market promises to move into the next phase of development. Major operators are already looking to offer next-generation mobile services to stimulate demand for higher-margin services such as non-SMS mobile data and infotainment services to push up revenues.

Nitin Bhat, Partner at Frost & Sullivan, commented, "Thailand's telecommunications market is at a crossroad. Mobile SIM penetration has breached 100% of the population and many operators are now experiencing negative revenue growth. The obvious answer to carrier woes is mobile broadband growth, as the market's six operators are all in the midst of planning or deploying their 3G networks."

He further added that though delayed, the late take-up of mobile broadband did pose certain benefits to the Thai telecoms market. "As one of the last markets to commercialize mobile broadband services in the Asia Pacific region, there are many case studies that Thai operators can refer and relay on to successfully expand broadband usage in Thailand and to educate themselves about the pitfalls encountered by their fellow neighbouring operators which they could avoid."

The day-long summit aims to bring together stakeholders in the Telecoms Industry, in particular, those with an eye on the Thai market to network and share their experience, discuss and showcase the opportunities and challenges within this high-growth market.

Topics of discussion include opportunities and challenges in building a broadband future for Thailand, mobile cloud computing - bringing unprecedented sophistication to mobile applications, key initiatives to drive sustainable growth of the telecoms market in Thailand – a regulatory standpoint and many others. Along with these stand-alone presentations, keynotes, and panel discussions, two concurrent track sessions titled Adopting new business and service strategies to enhance the Thai customer experience and increase revenues and Aligning technology strategy with business opportunities for sustainable broadband growth in Thailand will also be open for delegate participation.

For a detailed program agenda and speaker list, please visit http://www.frost-thaitelecom.com/. To register for the conference email your requests to [email protected].

The summit is held in association with the Ministry Of Information and Communication Technology of Thailand. Fujitsu is the gold sponsor, Amdocs and Nuance are the partner sponsors, while Dialogic is the exhibitor sponsor for the summit.

The official newspaper partner for the summit is the Wall Street Journal Asia, ZDNet Asia is the official online media partner, PRNewswire is the official newswire and Developing Telecoms is the supporting media for this summit.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company's TEAM Research, Growth Consulting and Growth Team Membership empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 40 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan's Growth Partnerships, visit http://www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan