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Totally crazy
Database, Published on 18/08/2010
» The Magnificent Seven said sorry, but it forgot to announce some extra stipulations it will put into the third generation (3G) phone bidding that may (or may not) take place in the foreseeable future; any firm winning one of the three 3G licences will of course have to pay somewhere around 12 billion baht, according to estimates by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). But in a whoops-moment, commissioner Suranant Wongwittayakamchorn suddenly remembered that each of them will have to offer free Internet access with 2Mbps lines to 15,000 rural schools for five years; ironically, that is something Samart Corp could do more easily than the Number 1 and Number 1 yuppiephone firms, Advanced Info Service and Dtac, neither of which is an Internet provider.
Dysfunctional campaign
Database, Published on 03/02/2010
» Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he expects third generation phone service before New Year's Eve; he then announced why there probably won't be any; in a speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the Magnificent Seven National Telecommunications Commission, Mr Abhisit set out the conflicting criteria he expects to see in Asia's last, most dysfunctional 3G campaign: service before the end of the year after fair bandwidth auctions that favour small Thai telecom operators; on one hand, "3G services can no longer be postponed," he insisted, but on the other, the NTC must bias bidding to favour a more competitive structure; the English translation of this speech: DTac of Norway and AIS of Shingapore have way too much market power now and 3G contracts must show that.