Ownership of Thailand’s telecom towers has been an incredibly complex subject as a result of Build Transfer Operator (BTO) agreements between the nation’s three private MNOs and state-owned entities TOT and CAT, which have now merged to form National Telecom.

Thailand – estimated tower ownership – Q4 2024

The only non-MNO entity to own Thailand’s towers is the Digital Infrastructure Fund (DIF). Between the IPO and 2015, TRUE and its subsidiaries AWS and BFKT transferred ownership and the rights to revenue from 11,845 towers into DIF, alongside over 1 million km of fibre optic cable and transmission.

TRUE transferred further towers to DIF in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 but are yet to transfer any of the towers they have built since, due to the pandemic. It is estimated that TRUE have built around 4,000 towers in this time.

Parallel infrastructure in Thailand is significant, and it is not uncommon to see three towers right next to one another, each with a single tenant. DIF has signed an agreement with DTAC to rent space on the towers they own on behalf of TRUE, but DTAC are currently only present on 2-3% of sites. The remainder of the portfolio is solely occupied by TRUE.

Thailand – telecom market statistics Q4 2024

Rumours have been swirling in the market that AIS has held talks with potential advisers for a strategic review of its assets, which could fetch the MNO between US$2-3bn.

In early 2020, EDOTCO signed an agreement with CAT and a network infrastructure provider to collaborate in the development of shared network infrastructure for 5G rollout, although there has been little news on the Malaysian-based towerco’s activities since.

Local firm ALT Telecom attempted to pioneer a tower sharing model in Thailand, signing a deal with a petrol station owner to build sites on their land. However the initiative was met with contempt from the country’s MNOs, who preferred to build their own towers on adjacent land rather than rent existing towers.

A merger between DTAC and TRUE completed in early 2023, and could see consolidation in the tower space. It is expected that around 5,000 towers will be decommissioned, due to crossover in the two MNOs existing networks, and no towers will be sold until one year following the completion of the merger.

While DIF and National Telecom own around half of the towers in the country, all operations and maintenance duties remain with the Thai MNOs. Fortunately, Thailand is a relatively straightforward market to operate towers.