Bangkok: The Consumer Council revealed that consumers are complaining a lot about True Net's downtime. "Compensation" or just "consolation"? Calling on the NBTC to set appropriate compensation measures. Preparing to conduct a poll to survey public opinion. Propose that the government support NT.
According to Thai News Agency, Ms. Chuda Sangkhachat, Subcommittee on Communication, Telecommunications and Information Technology, Consumer Council, gave an interview to the MCOT News Agency team about the incident of True's internet system crashing nationwide yesterday from approximately 10:00 a.m. until the evening, affecting a large number of users who were unable to communicate or use various services, including mobile phones, home internet, and applications that require a connection via True's network. True has approximately 57.79% of the total mobile phone market in Thailand. It is clear that the damage caused to more than half of the country's True users, including the general public, vendors, and riders, as well as corporate customers and people who have to contact companies and stores, is estimated to be enormous.
True has come out to clarify that the damage did not affect the entire system, but only some areas, and has prepared measures to compensate customers who were affected. True is giving away 10GB of free data and 100 minutes of free calls for 24 hours, which is not enough to cover the damage that has occurred, but if it is called consolation, it is acceptable because the conditions allow for only 24 hours of use and registration is required, which in reality, not everyone can use. While some people may suffer more damage than that because it is known that in some cases, during the emergency call, they were unable to use their phones. However, there should be more appropriate compensation measures, such as reducing monthly call fees, add-on packages for prepaid customers, which are given immediately without registration.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), as a regulatory agency, should investigate to clarify both the impact and the value of the damages, as well as appropriate remedial measures. The NBTC should be the one to determine remedial measures in order, without having to file individual complaints, instead of setting their own measures as currently done by mobile service providers. In the past, there have been many similar internet outages, such as on May 30, 2024, True Internet was down for more than 5 hours, on April 27, 2025, AIS Fibre home internet was down for several hours, and on May 10, 2024, AIS mobile signal was disrupted in many areas. Sometimes, there was no remedial action at all. These incidents reflect that the problem is not limited to any one service provider, but rather a structural problem that needs to be seriously addressed. Currently, Thailand has only 2 major telecommunications service providers, which poses a risk to cybersecurity, consumer rights, and the count ry's overall economic system.
While the National Telecommunications Public Company Limited (NT), a government organization, has only a 1.26% share of the telecommunications market (approximately 1.4 million numbers), there are still some consumers who see NT as a third choice and want to continue using NT's services. Therefore, it is believed that the government should support NT to remain in the telecommunications market and develop it into a third competitor in the market that can act as a counterbalance and provide an alternative for consumers.
However, the Consumer Council allows consumers affected by this incident to file a complaint through the Consumer Council at 1502 or the Consumer Council website or through the 20 provincial offices of the Consumer Council. The Consumer Council is to collect information and take action in terms of policy or law if there is no appropriate remedial action from the relevant agencies and service providers.