Modern telecommunications in Thailand began in 1875 with the deployment of the first telegraph service. Historically, the development of telecommunication networks in Thailand were in the hands of the public sector. Government organisations were established to provide telegraph, telephone, radio, and television services, and other government agencies, especially the military, still control a large estate of radio and television spectra. Private telecommunication operators initially acquired concession agreements with state enterprises. For mobile phone services, all the concessions have been amended by successive government to last 25 years have gradually ended in 2015. For other services, the concession terms and conditions vary, ranging from one to fifteen years. Nearly all of the concessions are build-operate-transfer (BTO) contracts. The private investor has to build all the required facilities and transfer them to the state before they can operate or offer services to public.
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician. He served in the Thai Police from 1973 to 1987, and was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
4G is the fourth generation of broadband cellular network technology, succeeding 3G and preceding 5G. A 4G system must provide capabilities defined by ITU in IMT Advanced. Potential and current applications include amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, and 3D television.
M1 Limited is a Singaporean telecommunications company and one of the major telcos operating in the country. M1 was founded in 1994 and traded on the Singapore Exchange from 2002 to 2019. M1 is a subsidiary of the Keppel Corporation and Singapore Press Holdings through their joint venture, Konnectivity.
Intouch Holdings PCL is a Thai holding company which focuses on the telecommunication industry. It is the parent company of Advanced Info Service (AIS), the largest mobile phone operator in Thailand, and Thaicom, Thailand's satellite operator. It is listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand and is part of SET50 index.
The 2006 sale of the Shinawatra family's share of Shin Corporation (ShinCorp) to Temasek Holdings caused great controversy in Thailand. The sale was in response to long-standing criticisms that the Shinawatra family's holdings created a conflict of interest for Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Criticisms of the sale focused on the insistence by Thaksin and a compliant government that the transaction was exempt from capital gains tax, the fact that the Thai company was sold to a Singaporean company, and the fact that the Thai law regarding foreign investments in the telecom sector had been amended just prior to the sale. Thaksin's sale also impacted holdings, among other parties, of the Crown Property Bureau that had an investment in Siam Commercial Bank that held ShinCorp stock.
Mobitel was a Slovenian GSM/UMTS/LTE mobile operator. The company merged with Telekom Slovenije in 2013.
Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited is a Pakistani wireless network operator headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan. Khurrum Ashfaque is the current chief executive officer (CEO).
Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of M-PESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service.
Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, doing business as SLT-MOBITEL, is the national telecommunications services provider in Sri Lanka and one of the country's largest companies with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 40 billion. The company provides domestic and corporate services which include fixed and wireless telephony, Internet access and IT services to domestic, public and business sector customers. As of 2018 SLT-MOBITEL was Sri Lanka's second largest mobile network operator with over 7.9 million subscribers.
The SET Index is a Thai composite stock market index calculated by the prices of all common stocks on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), except for stocks that have been suspended for more than one year. It is a market capitalization-weighted price index which compares the current market value of all listed common shares with its value on the base date of April 30, 1975, when the Index was established and set at 100 points.
TOT Public Company Limited is a Thai state-owned telecommunications company. Originally established in 1954 and corporatized in 2002, TOT used to be known as the Telephone Organization of Thailand and TOT Corporation Public Company Limited. TOT's main line of business is fixed line telephony, although it has several other businesses, including mobile telephony. Since 2021, TOT PCL become National Telecom Public Company Limited after merger with CAT Telecom.
CAT Telecom Public Company Limited is the state-owned company that runs Thailand’s international telecommunications infrastructure, including its international gateways, satellite, and submarine cable networks connections. Since 2021 CAT Telecom became the National Telecom Public Company Limited after merging with TOT Public Company Limited.
True Corporation Public Company Limited (TRUE) is a communications conglomerate in Thailand. It is a joint venture between Charoen Pokphand Group and Telenor, formed by the merger between the original True Corporation and DTAC in the form of equal partnership to create a new telecommunications company that can fully meet the needs of the digital age. True controls Thailand's largest cable TV provider, TrueVisions, Thailand's largest internet service provider True Online, Thailand's largest mobile operators, TrueMove H and DTAC TriNet, which is second and third only to AIS. and entertainment media including television, internet, online games, and mobile phones under the True Digital brand. As of August 2014, True, along with True Telecommunications Growth Infrastructure Fund, had a combined market capitalization of US$10 billion. TrueMove is also a partner of Vodafone Group. Charoen Pokphand Group and Telenor hold equal ownership of 30% of True's shares as of March 2023. It operates fixed-line, wireless, cable TV, IPTV and broadband services.
Total Access Communication Public Company Limited, commonly known as DTAC, is a GSM mobile phone company in Thailand. It is the nation's third largest GSM phone company, after AIS and True. DTAC is owned by Norwegian company Telenor both directly and indirectly, and both companies share the same logo. As of 31 December 2011, DTAC had 23.2 million subscribers with a market share of subscribers at around 30 percent. As of 2019, the company has 20.642 million mobile subscriptions and 3904 employees. It is listed on the Singapore Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Thailand's connection to the Internet began in 1987 via the Australian Research and Edcuation Network using UUCP and SUNIII which transformed to full TCP/IP in 1992 to UUNET. This marked Thailand as an early participant in bringing the Internet to Asia.
Yingluck Shinawatra, nicknamed Pou, is a Thai businesswoman, politician and a member of the Pheu Thai Party who became the Prime Minister of Thailand following the 2011 election. Yingluck was Thailand's first female prime minister and its youngest in over 60 years. She was removed from office on 7 May 2014 by a Constitutional Court decision.
The People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) or People's Committee for Absolute Democracy with the King as Head of State (PCAD) was a reactionary umbrella political pressure group in Thailand. Its aim was to remove the influence of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra from Thai politics by deposing the incumbent Pheu Thai government of Yingluck Shinawatra and creating an unelected "People's Council" to oversee political reforms. The group played a key role in the 2013–14 Thai political crisis and the lead up to the 2014 Thai coup d'état, organising large-scale protests within Bangkok and disrupting voting in the 2014 Thai general election in order to prevent a predicted victory by Pheu Thai.
Airtel India commonly known as Airtel, is the second largest provider of mobile telephony and third largest provider of fixed telephony in India, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services. The brand is operated by several subsidiaries of Bharti Airtel, with Bharti Hexacom and Bharti Telemedia providing broadband fixed line services and Bharti Infratel providing telecom passive infrastructure service such as telecom equipment and telecom towers. Currently, Airtel provides 5G, 4G and 4G+ services all over India. Currently offered services include fixed-line broadband, and voice services depending upon the country of operation. Airtel had also rolled out its VoLTE technology across all Indian telecom circles.
QR code payment is a contactless payment method where payment is performed by scanning a QR code from a mobile app. This is an alternative to doing electronic funds transfer at point of sale using a payment terminal. This avoids a lot of the infrastructure traditionally associated with electronic payments such as payment cards, payment networks, payment terminal and merchant accounts.
180.89 billion baht (2019) [3] 
289.67 billion baht (2019) [3] 
