Thailand’s telecoms regulator is requiring the winners of last year’s spectrum auctions – market leader AIS and number three True Move – to offer low-cost 4G service for the poor and disabled people.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said operators must provide prepaid 4G SIM cards that are at least 10 per cent less expensive than the existing 4G voice and data tariff caps set by the regulator, the Bangkok Post reported.

The order is part of the terms of the mobile licences the two operators were awarded for the 900MHz and 1.8GHz bands a year ago. The maximum rates are set at THB0.69 ($0.02) per minute for voice and THB0.26 per Mb/s for data.

Operators have known about the requirement for months and need to launch the low-cost service by March.

The NBTC is in talks with the Social Development and Human Security Ministry to help register disabled and low-income people and acknowledged that the definition of disabled and low-income people will have to be finalised in cooperation with the ministry, the Post said.

NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith said it expects an update on the disabled and low-income lists by year-end and will share them with AIS and True.

The regulator held two 4G auctions at the end of 2015, which raised THB232.66 billion ($6.5 billion) for the government in the country’s long-delayed 4G auctions. Market leader AIS won 15MHz of 1.8MHz spectrum with a THB41 billion bid and True paid THB39.8 billion for a similar block. The two companies also each won 10MHz of 900MHz spectrum for about THB76 billion.

Last week the regulator announced plans to auction off 80MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum by June 2017 to prepare for the eventual rollout of 5G services in 2020.