A visitor rides a bike linked to a virtual reality device at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang’s Kmitl City Centre in Bangkok. File photo
Thailand's data consumption is expected to exceed the global average by 2031, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) applications, extended reality devices and video generation, says Ericsson.The country needs to make the 3.5 gigahertz spectrum available to unlock economic growth, particularly for businesses and small enterprises as 5G is critical infrastructure, while preparing for 6G commercial globally in 2030, said Anders Rian, head of Ericsson Thailand.
Data usage skyrocketed to 34.4 gigabytes (GB) per month per smartphone in Thailand, the highest in Southeast Asia and beating the global average of 22GB in 2025.
Data consumption is expected to grow to 56.1GB per month by 2031, exceeding the projected global average of 40GB, he said.
This massive surge in data will be driven by extended reality devices, video generation and AI applications, said Mr Rian. AI consumes roughly eight times more data than standard background data, and background cloud syncing heavily drives data uploads.
