Has Total Access Communication (DTAC) lost its edge? The country's second-largest mobile provider, after all, opted out of the auctions for the fourth-generation spectrum and remains tied to legacy concession contracts. Its rivals, meanwhile, have moved on to new licensing schemes.
Third-ranked True Move, the mobile arm of True Corporation, has seen growth jump sharply in recent quarters as its long-held focus on convergence finally appears to be bearing fruit.
Market leader Advanced Info Service (AIS) for its part is increasingly moving into video content creation to meet growing demand and maintain its leadership position in wireless broadband.
Sitthichoke Nopchinabutr, DTAC's new chief marketing officer, does not deny that the company needs a new focus for its customers.
But fighting for market share through promotional subsidies is ultimately a losing battle, he says.
"We've made mistakes in the past," Mr Sitthichoke says. "From now on, we must get a handle on the competition. We'll return to our previously successful, traditional approach -- using basic, emotionally based models of advertising and marketing."
The advance of technology and networks has essentially reduced mobile telecommunications to a commodity. But rather than fight to simply compete on price, DTAC must look to provide a superior customer experience and promote the values of the brand, he says.
Mr Sitthichoke says the company aims to be the "best value for money" operator, rather than the one that attracts customers by giving away free smartphones or data packages.
He insists that DTAC's price packages already offer superior value, particularly when considering details such as bandwidth speed limits.
DTAC, a unit of Norway's Telenor, also believes that its commitment to corporate governance, sustainability and fair business practices resonates in today's marketplace.
Retaining customers as the core strategy is more cost-effective and even more profitable than acquiring new customers, Mr Sitthichoke says. He pinpoints fostering trust and brand loyalty as another strategy to encourage lifelong customers to stay on board.
DTAC's head office at the Chamchuri Square complex on Phaya Thai Road. DTAC is a youthful company, with an average employee age of 30.
Challenges in restructuring
Mr Sitthichoke admits that the complexity of DTAC's existing organisational and management structures poses another core challenge to the company.
"We need to manage complexity by reducing management and operational layers in the organisation to improve performance," he says.
DTAC is undergoing a digital transformation through the use of digital advances such as business analytics, mobility, social media, cloud computing and automated processes to improve performance and productivity.
"The rapid pace of digital transformation will change nearly every aspect of the way we operate, enabling employees to work more efficiently and deepen collaboration," Mr Sitthichoke says.
Developing digital capabilities in the company's activities, staff, culture and structure, as well as creating an effective digital culture, are other strategies DTAC is implementing to deal with the industry disruptions emerging from digital trends.
"As consumers become more digitally savvy, DTAC employees will themselves have to become more digitally savvy to create entirely new ways to define, measure and manage impact," Mr Sitthichoke says.
That type of flexibility is likely to be aided by the average age of a DTAC employee: 30.
The company is also in the process of creating a common language for better organisational communication between management and staff. DTAC is looking to streamline its management approach with agile development techniques to simplify the organisational structure.
To digitally transform the customer experience, DTAC is concentrating on customer understanding and seeking top-line growth by using insights from consumer research data.
Mr Sitthichoke says the company has started seeing positive results from the changes. Staff are more motivated while some members of management have begun to look at things in a new way.
Lars Norling, chief executive of DTAC (standing second right), with Mr Sitthichoke at a company meeting.
Back to growth
DTAC is now ready to get back to growth after experiencing weak performance over the past two years, mainly due to its heavy promotional programmes, including giving away free handsets.
"After the restructuring, we will move towards a new growth path," Mr Sitthichoke says.
An uncertain future swirled around DTAC after the company failed to secure a fourth-generation (4G) licence in last year's government auction. But Mr Sitthichoke insists the company has enough spectra to serve its business growth and customer needs over the next two to five years.
DTAC has a total of 50 megahertz on the 1800MHz spectrum under a concession with CAT Telecom, an arrangement due to expire in 2018.
If DTAC fails to win back its 1800MHz licence, the company will have a mere 15MHz of bandwidth on the 2100MHz spectrum to serve its existing 25 million subscribers.
DTAC's head office offers exercise and recreation facilities to help staff relax.
Betting big on new auctions
Mr Sitthichoke says he believes the government will quickly allocate telecom spectra through auctions in order to meet growing consumer demand for mobile broadband.
DTAC has requested that the government provide a clear and timely spectra-auction roadmap.
The coming auction for the 1800MHz spectrum now used by DTAC will mark another major step in allocating spectra, which is a national resource and key facilitator of Thailand's digital economy.
DTAC looks forward to all available concessionary spectra (unused 1800MHz, 850MHz and 2600MHz) in any upcoming auction to ensure high-quality 4G services and wide coverage throughout the country.
According to a GSMA report headed "Building Thailand's Digital Economy and Society 2015", there will be 13.8 million 4G subscribers in Thailand by 2019. Mobile broadband penetration is set to increase from 55% in 2013 to 133% in 2020, lifting cumulative GDP to 730 billion baht.
DTAC estimates that there will be more than 400 million machine-to-machine (M2M) devices connected across Thailand.
In the digital economy, M2M business and the Internet of Things will be key enablers for business innovation, such as fleet management and logistics, as well as for consumer-centric innovation, such as child tracking, senior tracking and healthcare.
"As we increasingly rely on mobile connectivity, demand for wireless spectrum capacity and mobile data bandwidth will grow daily in the coming years," Mr Sitthichoke says.
Thailand must have higher-speed infrastructure ready in order to realise an "Internet for All", DTAC's slogan, and deliver dynamic digital services to new segments.
Based on statistics from a Marketing Oops survey on Thailand's social media landscape, millennials (those aged 18-34) are the largest and prime segment of internet users.
Photo uploading is the most popular activity on social media for people in Thailand, with more than 495 million photos uploaded last year -- the highest number in the world.
Some 85% of the 35 million Thai users watch videos on YouTube and other video-streaming services.
DTAC customers own 14.9 million smartphones, equivalent to 52% of the total customer base. These are positive factors for the development of the telecommunications industry and other sectors such as finance, banking and entertainment.
More importantly, Mr Sitthichoke says auctioning spectrum can generate huge revenue for the government.
Last year, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission sold 30MHz of bandwidth on the 1800MHz band, fetching 80.9 billion baht in an auction seen as shaping the landscape of the 900MHz bid.
Auction prices for 900MHz spectrum licences shot past those for 1800MHz levels, reaching a combined 152 billion baht.
"DTAC is ready to participate in the auctioning of new spectra," Mr Sitthichoke says. "We will not repeat the mistakes of the past."
In case there is no auction next year, he says DTAC has a Plan B in place. While declining to provide many details, he mentions forming partnerships with state telecom enterprises as a strategic alternative.
Mr Sitthichoke says DTAC must learn from past mistakes and get a handle on the competition. The company will return to its previously successful marketing approach.
Focus on pure mobile
In any case, DTAC will keep sticking to a purely mobile-based business.
"I don't see a mobile company providing convergence services that is performing healthily despite having a wide range of telecom, broadband and online services," Mr Sitthichoke says.
"We can compete with a single mobile service based on our business performance in the past, which has nothing to do with the convergence strategy."
Meanwhile, Telenor, the company's major shareholder, has insisted on keeping the Thai mobile unit. After all, DTAC contributes the largest proportion of revenue among Telenor Group's foreign markets.
Telenor relies on long-term investment strategies and a long-term growth perspective, and it will not be discouraged by short-term challenges or a single crisis, Mr Sitthichoke says.
