To improve its 5G coverage, AIS purchased half of the spectrum assets in the 700MHz band owned by National Telecom, for THB14.9 billion ($419.6 million), with the provision that 20% of this spectrum asset will be reserved for Thai MVNOs. Both companies also signed a contract, which will allow NT to rent out AIS' soon-to-be-deployed 13,500 base stations and use this partner's network for national roaming.
Key Findings:
Our AIS users see the fastest 5G speeds in Thailand.
AIS is the sole winner of three out of four speed categories. TrueMove H jumps on the winners' podium for Upload Speed Experience and whittles away at AIS's lead for Download Speed, bringing the gap between the two operators down from 2.6Mbps to 1.9Mbps. However, AIS has increased its winning margins for both 5G speed awards — from 64.6Mbps to 69.4Mbps for 5G Download Speed and from 7.1Mbps to 7.8Mbps for 5G Upload Speed. Aside from DTAC seeing an increase in its score for Download Speed Experience, our users in Thailand generally have observed declines in their average overall and 5G speeds.
DTAC retains Video Experience but slips off the winners' podium for 5G Video Experience
In the previous report DTAC became the sole winner for Video Experience and jumped on the winners' podium for 5G Video Experience with AIS. DTAC retains its outright victory for Video Experience with a score of 59.3 points on a 100-point scale, beating TrueMove H by 0.9 points. However, DTAC has lost its grasp on the 5G Video Experience award, leaving AIS alone on the podium and losing by 3.6 points to the new outright winner. All national operators in Thailand place in the Very Good (68-78) category for 5G video services.
AIS triumphs for 5G Live Video Experience, while DTAC and TrueMove H share the overall Live Video Experience award.
Live Video Experience quantifies live video streaming used for current events, such as live sports, game streams, music concerts, or news. AIS comes first for 5G Live Video Experience with a score of 68.5 points on a 100-point scale. All Thai national operators rate as Excellent (58 or above) for 5G Live Video Experience, which means our users are, on average, able to stream video at least at 1080p with low loading times, little stalling, and a satisfactory live offset. While AIS wins 5G Live Video Experience outright — both its competitors are joint winners for the overall Live Video Experience award, claiming it with statistically tied scores of 55.3-55.4 points on a 100-point scale.
AIS wins Coverage Experience outright and 5G Coverage Experience jointly with TrueMove H
Opensignal's new Coverage Experience metrics measure the extent of mobile networks in the places people live, work, and travel. AIS triumphs for Coverage Experience with a score of 8.2 points on a 10-point scale — 1.4 points ahead of TrueMove H. Both these operators are joint winners of the other newly introduced coverage award — 5G Coverage Experience — with scores of 1.5-1.6 points.
TrueMove H retains 5G Availability, but DTAC sees the greatest improvement
TrueMove H wins 5G Availability outright for the second time in a row, with a score of 27.9%. DTAC sees the highest boost in its score since the previous report, of nine percentage points, bringing its score to 26%. As a result, DTAC overtakes AIS, which now places third with a score of 24.9%. This means that our 5G users on TrueMove H's DTAC's networks spend over a quarter of their time with an active 5G connection, and just under a quarter for those on AIS' network.
AIS takes home Consistent Quality
AIS wins the Consistent Quality award outright with a score of 59.2%. It beats DTAC by 3.1 percentage points and TrueMove H by 9.1 percentage points. This metric measures if the network is sufficient to support common mobile application requirements at a level that is 'good enough' for users to maintain (or complete) various typical demanding tasks on their devices. It assesses a number of experience indicators such as download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, and time to first byte.
The full analysis and insights can be found here: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2023/11/thailand/mobile-network-experience
Source: PC & Associates Consulting
