True Move, Thailand's second-largest mobile operator, aims for market share to reach 33% next year, up from 26% now.
The long-term goal is to keep expanding the business roadmap and ensure leadership as an innovative provider of digital services.
To achieve the 33% target, True Move will continue providing innovative services and products and invest in network capacity to meet demand for data usage, said Vichaow Rakphongphairoj, co-president for commercial management at True Corporation, the parent company of True Move.
The Internet of Things (IoT) and integrated digital platforms form the core ecosystem that the company hopes to provide in the new business landscape.
"The penetration rate of mobile numbers and SIM cards in the country today is 140%, and it may increase to 1,000% of the population after the fifth-generation (5G) wireless broadband service is widely utilised, mainly through IoT-connected devices," Mr Vichaow said.
He said developing and providing innovative products and services will require more spectrum bandwidth resources -- the core infrastructure for delivering innovative services to customers.
With that in mind, mobile operators such as True Move must acquire further spectrum bandwidth to ensure their capability to launch new services.
Mr Vichaow said the company is interested in the planned 5G auction of 1800- and 850-megahertz spectra scheduled for next June.
"It is too early to say whether to join the bid or not," he said. "Let us see the final conditions of the auction's draft and our feasibility study."
On Wednesday, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission announced the auction design and reserve prices for the 1800- and 850MHz licence auction.
The 1800- and 850MHz spectrum ranges are now operated by Total Access Communication (DTAC) under concessions of state enterprise CAT Telecom. Those concessions expire next Sept 30.
True Move holds a combined 55MHz of bandwidth on the 850-, 900-, 1800- and 2100MHz spectra, the largest amount of spectrum bandwidth among mobile players.
According to a report to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, there were 90.2 million mobile subscribers in the market in the second quarter of 2017.
Of the total, 40.4 million or 44.8% were subscribers of the biggest operator, Advanced Info Service (AIS), followed by True Move at 26.2 million or 29% and Total Access Communication (DTAC) at 23.6 million or 26.2%.
In market share by revenue as of June, AIS led with 48.6% while True Move had 26% and DTAC had 25.4%.
