TECH

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.