Type Public Industry Telecommunications Area served Thailand Parent organization Intouch Holdings | Traded as SET: ADVANC Founder Thaksin Shinawatra Revenue 152.7 billion THB (2016) | |
 | ||
Founded April 24, 1986; 30 years ago (April 24, 1986) CEO Somchai Loetsuthiwong (1 Jul 2014–) Stock price ADVANC (BKK) THB 175.00 +4.00 (+2.34%)16 Mar, 4:35 PM GMT+7 - Disclaimer Headquarters Phaya Thai District, Bangkok, Thailand Profiles | ||
Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited is Thailand's largest GSM mobile phone operator with 39.87 million customers as of Q3 2016. Founded in April 1986, AIS started off as a computer rental business. In October 1990, it launched analog 900 MHz mobile phone services with a 20-year monopoly concession from the Telephone Organization of Thailand, and later became the first company allowed to operate on the GSM 900 frequency. Followed by acquiring Shinawatra Paging in June 1992.
Contents
The highly profitable company is controlled by the Intouch plc (formerly Shin Corporation), headed by Temasek Holdings, a Singapore government owned agency. AIS is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 5 November 1991 (1991-11-05). As of 23 December 2011, InTouch plc holds 40.45% of the total shares of the company and Singapore Telecommunications (also majority held by Temasek together) together with Thai Trust Fund and OCBC Nominees holds a 23.32% stake.
Temasek bought AIS brand through the 2006 acquisition of the Shin Corporation from the ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
In February 2014, in a conflict between the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PRDC) and Shinawatra, the PDRC called for a boycott of AIS, wrongly believing it to be owned by the Shinawatra family.
Subsidiaries
mPay
mPay, a subsidiary of the Advanced Info Service, is a payment processor and one of Thailand's 3 major payment service providers. Its partners include CIMB and 2C2P.
According to a 2014 article in The Nation, mPay has around 1.6 million registered users, of which roughly 1.2 million are end-users and 400,000 are mPay agents. 150,000 of mPay's end-users use the service monthly, spending on average Bt30,000. In November 2015, 4 million people in Thailand used mPay, and in August 2013, mPay had around 700 merchant partners.
Services and coverage
As of March 2013, AIS is the largest network in Thailand with 35 million subscribers. In addition to post pay services, AIS offers prepaid services under the 1-2Call brand.
Currently (2014) data is sold in both time-based and volume-based packages, with daily unlimited packages starting at 49 baht.