Thailand’s telecoms regulator is looking to assign 100MHz of 4.8GHz spectrum to businesses for free to spur adoption of private 5G networks, The Bangkok Post reported.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission commissioner Somphop Purivigraipong noted the allocation aims to encourage vertical industries to deploy private networks to improve or expand their operations, the newspaper wrote.

Somphop noted few factories have adopted 5G services using the 2.6GHz band offered by the two major mobile players in the country, True Corp and AIS, adding the aim is for services running on the 4.8GHz band to promote new use cases.

He suggested factories could partner with equipment vendors or operators to deploy private networks for the operations, The Bangkok Post stated.

In June, the operators bid THB41.3 billion ($1.3 billion) for spectrum in the 1.5GHz, 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz bands.

Data from GSMA intelligence showed True ended June with 47.9 million mobile connections and AIS 46 million, with 5G accounting for about a third of the total.