Thailand’s AIS launches prepaid broadband

Thailand’s AIS has launched the nation’s first prepaid fixed broadband service, introducing a 15Mbps speed plan for a 500 baht ($14) monthly top-up fee.

AIS has set a target of becoming Thailand’s second largest broadband player by 2019, citing comments from a senior executive at the company.

The operator launched commercial fixed broadband services in April last year and had 450,000 subscribers as of December. AIS plans to increase this to 1 million by 2018 and 2 million by 2019.

In order to achieve its growth ambitions AIS has allocated 7 billion baht to extend its fiber network to cover 24 provinces this year, and a further 10 billion baht to expand this to 40 provinces in 2017.

Meanwhile rival Jasmine International, whose subsidiary Triple T Broadband operates landline broadband services under the 3BB brand – has retaliated by slashing the price of its 50Mbps plans to 700 baht per month, from 2,500 baht.