Showing 1 - 10 of 1,130
Out of the blue
Database, Published on 17/02/2010
» PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey decided right out of the blue to call on the Magnificent Seven to get their act together and press ahead with an auction of third-generation phone bandwidth, and to heck with the consequences, constitution and so on; the National Telecommunications Commission, in his opinion, needs to move along because the public needs 3G. The National Telecommunications Commission chuckled at Mr Sathit, and made another decision to delay another project, this one the application by No 1 yuppiephone network Advanced Info Service of Shingapore to fire up its proposed roaming service with your TOT; the problem was so important that the NTC gave it to a deputy secretary, Thakorn Boonyasith, who said the proposed new TOT-AIS hookup could violate the terms of the old TOT-AIS concession; AIS wants to suck up most of the TOT's 3G bandwidth, such as it is, in return for which it will allow other customers to use AIS facilities for calls outside the small corner of Bangkok where 3G is actually available.
The fallout from Thaksin's judgement day and how it affects Thailand's telcos
Database, Don Sambandaraksa, Published on 10/03/2010
» Judgement day has come and gone and now mankind is left in the wake of seven hours of court judgement in minute detail of what our former Prime Minister has been up to and been found guilty of, and a lot of that revolves around the telecommunications sector.
TAT opens centre to assist tourists
Business, Chatrudee Theparat, Published on 11/03/2010
» The Tourism Authority of Thailand will upgrade its crisis management centre to a national tourist assistance centre to help visitors during this weekend's anti-government protests in Bangkok.
Blame game
Database, Published on 17/03/2010
» If you can't say nee sua paa jorake, put it this way: Out of the frying pan into the fire; telecoms firms apart from the state duopoly definitely thought of fleeing the tiger only to meet the crocodile in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on the Thaksin assets; the Court's finding that Shin Corp of Shingapore (and previously Thailand) profited from cabinet decisions during the Thaksin years appeared to have emboldened the government into claiming that your ToT and your CAT Telecom "lost" billions, and a total rewrite of concession and other agreements could be in the offing; that would only take Thai telecoms back into the 20th century, result in high new charges for consumers and make 3G mobile phone service a fantasy instead of a dream; legally, of course, putting a phone in the hands of every Thai has theoretically cost the state-owned firms a lot - except that the state-owned firms were (and are) incapable of meeting the needs of the country at any price; every other telecom firm has certainly profited in the past two decades, but then so have consumers; a return to strict regulations would mean a return to the days when it was illegal to own a modem or a Telex machine, and the only legal way to communicate was to rent equipment from the state.
Ministers sign computer-related crime MOU
Database, Suchit Leesa-nguansuk, Published on 23/06/2010
» The growing use of the Internet for criminal purposes which pose a threat to Thailand's national security and social development issues has driven the government to implement new initiatives to overcome these challenges and reconsider computer-crime-related legislation.
A dubious distinction
Database, Published on 23/06/2010
» Because there isn't nearly enough control over the Internet, the cabinet approved setting up a new office to "prevent and suppress" anything on the Internet that is aimed at or might be aimed at the monarchy; with some help from Mr Orwell, the government decided the office should be called the Bureau of Prevention and Eradication of Computer Crime; Juti Krairiksh, the new MICT (Minister of Internet Censorship of Thailand) explained that any Internet provider who did not instantly comply with his "request" to block a website would lose its licence.
The case of the missing data privacy law
Database, Don Sambandaraksa, Published on 25/08/2010
» The problem with the computer crime law is not the law itself, but the fact that it was designed as a pair of laws and the thrust of criticism levelled at the law today is really a reflection of the missing data privacy law that was drafted alongside it - the yin to the cyber crime law's yang.
20th century boys
Database, Published on 06/10/2010
» After all that, the cabinet simply voted quickly to put the country firmly and finally and expensively on the road to the 20th century in mobile phone technology; it will cost you 19.98 billion baht for starters; without a whimper or a word of dissent, ministers voted to let your ToT build and service a 3G network, don't worry about all that stuff about bidding and licences and auction and regulators; the Democrat Party, which late last century gave you Thai Mobile, or SuthepNet, at a cost of mere tens of billions of baht, now presents JutiNet, at a cost still to be determined; chief sponsor of the surprise bill to "approve the ToT business plan" was Juti Krairiksh, the Minister of Internet Censorship for Thailand (MICT); under "the master plan", to coin a 20th century phrase, ToT will build 3G nodes that will cover Bangkok and at least 12 surrounding provinces with full 3G coverage; then the state-run firm will lease out the network, chiefly to virtual operators such as Samart Telecom; initial recipients of largesse from the cabinet decision, apart from politicians, will be ZTE and Huawei Technology, neither of which appeared embarrassed by previous revelations of their Thailand operations; immediately after the cabinet decision, ToT promised to hire some foreign firms to help them get started on the business plan, which they hadn't written yet.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Database, Published on 13/10/2010
» No 1 yuppiephone firm Advanced Info Service of Shingapore admitted it has already pulled back funds once set for 3G investment, and will pour them into content creation and upgrading the tired old reliable boring Edge system for Internet content; Prattana Leelapanang, AIS president in charge of vice for wireless businesses, said that the company was simply moving away from 3G once again; the big deal now in 3G-starved Thailand will be in data, but using the 2G-friendly Edge system to do it; look for AIS to push deals with well-known content firms; two subsidiaries set up specifically to handle 3G matters, Mimo Technology and Advanced Wireless Network, will be repositioned as data content aggregator.
Taxing woes
Database, Published on 20/10/2010
» Cabinet approved a draft law for a "green tax" on all industries, to kick in by 2012; there is still some work to do but proposed rates are in the neighbourhood of 10,000 baht per tonne of waste water, 2,500 baht per tonne of emissions and 15 percent of 1,000 baht per tourist; Big Business enthusiastically welcomed the environmental tax proposal, but had a couple of teensy weensy little worries, hardly worth mentioning but still... such as about consumer resistance when they push the new taxes onto the public because no way will business absorb the costs; and also there's unfairness of, say, shops along the Chao Phraya dumping pollution and not having to pay any tax; also, there is concern over calling tourists "pollution"; but really, all in all, an excellent idea.