XOX MOBILE Sdn Bhd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of XOX Berhad, TOT Public Company Limited (“TOT”) jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partnership for Thailand market.
TOT Public Company Limited, is a Thai state-owned telecommunications company, established in 1954, also a host of MVNOs in Thailand.
Based on the data from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, there were 125.1 million mobile subscriptions in 2018 in Thailand. Thailand’s population as recorded by World Bank was at 69 million in 2017. The mobile subscription rate was at 1.81 ratio per Thai.
Currently there are three active MVNOs running on TOT’s network. Rungsun Channarukul, Senior Executive Vice President of TOT, said that having more MVNOs in Thailand market has several advantages.
“MVNOs in Thailand offer alternatives for low income users and students, promoting healthy competition among the telcos as well as to provide an avenue for start-up development,” says Mr. Rungsun.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of XOX Mobile, Mr. Ng Kok Heng said that the brand is excited to venture into Thailand as the MVNO penetration in Thai market is under 1mil subscriber. Taking into the consideration, the penetration in Malaysia MVNO market is about 10%, we think that the Thai MVNO market is under developed.
“XOX is the pioneer and leader of MVNO in Malaysia since 2009, and we are always looking into expanding our businesses outside of Malaysia. It has always been our aim to bring our technology and business ideas developed in Malaysia to go international. Given our MVNO track record here, we can make our MVNO venture a success in Thailand,” explains Mr. Ng.
“MVNOs should be able to hold a reasonable market share of the overall number of subscriptions in the Thailand market, as that would be a proper portion for a better competitive structure,” Mr. Rungsun explained.
“XOX MOBILE sees the MVNO venture in Thailand could benefit our existing subscribers in Malaysia, as we are the top 3 arrivals to Thailand, with about 1.9 million , from the period of Jan to Jun 2019. Our customers will enjoy the convenience and costs saving on roaming when crossing border, which more details will be announced,” Mr. Ng concluded.
In Q1 2019, XOX MOBILE launched Malaysia first fully digitized XOX eSIM, an innovative embedded SIM technology.
XOX MOBILE Sdn Bhd is part of the XOX Berhad that was listed on the Bursa Malaysia in July 2011. Established in 2008, XOX MOBILE that provides mobile phone services via Celcom’s 4G+,4G, 3G and 2G network infrastructure. Although XOX MOBILE is working with Celcom, the brand operates independently and maintains its own brand identity, customer service, management structure and staff.
Targeting Malaysian youths or millennials with its personalised mobile experiences and innovative products, the brand offers prepaid, postpaid and phone bundling services to approximately 2.5 million subscribers in Malaysia, it claims.