Analysis of Broadband Access in Thailand: Drivers and Barriers

Paper in proceeding, 2011

Broadband access is growing around the world including in developing countries like Thailand. This study attempts to provide guidance to the National Regulatory Agency (NRA) by addressing the following question: What are the key determinant factors to explain the probability that an individual consumer access and use broadband? The bivariate probit model is employed to examine empirically whether the accessibility to fixed telephony infrastructure, socio-economic variables and area of residence have a systematic link to broadband access or not in the first stage and then specific Internet usage given individual broadband access is estimated. The data from a national survey in 2010 by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of Thailand are used for the analysis. Based on the findings, the variables with potential impact are fixed infrastructure, income, gender, level of education age of consumer and residential area. The impact of these factors varies across broadband services (i.e video download, social network, searching and E-mail). The results of this paper are compatible with prior literature, although there are important differences: the infrastructure of fixed telephony is considered an important factor in stimulating broadband usage, A policy recommendation that could encourage competition and growth in broadband usage is the development of a fixed infrastructure and allowing more competition at infrastructure and service level in the early stage. A further investigation should analyse more on the application adoption and trust.