Thailand's regulator has made a largely symbolic gesture in increasing the fine for mobile operators to $3160 (100,000 baht) a day for failure to properly register prepaid SIM cards as required by law since 2006. The new fines come into effect on May 1st.
Previously, the fine stood at $2,530 (80,000 Baht) a day.
AIS, Dtac, TrueMove, TOT and CAT now all have 15 days to appeal or to pay the increased fine.
The telcos for their part have said that the regulation is impractical and anticompetitive; that if one telco complies first, they would suffer severe market share erosion in Thailand’s highly competitive market.
Thailand currently has 110 million mobile users, 64 million of which are on prepaid against a population of 65 million.