Showing 31 - 37 of 37
PM needs to become more Twitter-savvy
Database, Don Sambandaraksa, Published on 07/04/2010
» As Bangkok ground to a halt during the first few days of the current protests, the number of fans of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on social networking sites shot up, averaging over a thousand new fans a day and now stands at just over 120,000. Finance Minister Korn Chartikavanij similarly saw a rise in followers and now stands at around a third of that, at 33,000.
Back to the future
Database, Published on 31/03/2010
» Don't panic, announced Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, but in the next 60 days the government will "create a level playing field" for telecom companies and probably try to extract truckloads of money and turn back the clock on concessions granted by the state duopoly; Mr Abhisit continued to maintain that telecoms firms (translation: one telecoms firm) made money from changes during the Thaksin Shinawatra years; he said he wants to "unwind the concessions," go back to the future and probably send a huge bill to Advanced Info Service of Shingapore; Mr Abhisit said he envisioned one big concession contract covering all telecoms firms and saving the bacon of your slowly dying ToT and CAT Telecom. Wichian Mektrakarn, CEO of No 1 yuppiephone firm Advanced Info Service of Shingapore, explained that if Mr Abhisit succeeds in unravelling all concessions contracts and reverting to the early 1990s when they started to come into being, "the whole system will collapse." Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij seemed to contradict the prime minister; he told Hong Kong businessmen it is "unlikely" the government will try to extract retroactive concessions payments.
Out of their league
Database, Published on 24/03/2010
» Some companies sponsor football teams to boost their image and get their name out; No 1 yuppiephone network Advanced Info Service of Shingapore is going to sponsor an entire football league to try to get the country over all that bad image the Supreme Court's decision about Thaksin Shinawatra poured on the firm; the AIS Regional League will gather 74 clubs nationwide, play 1,500 matches in total, and every member of the championship team will get a huge prize - one year of free mobile phone calls.
Thailand's digital democracy in action
Database, Suchit Leesa-nguansuk, Published on 17/03/2010
» As the red shirt movement heats up politics in Thailand, several non-politicians have been seeking ways to express their opinions as well as report the red shirt movement through popular social network sites like Facebook and Twitter, placing Thailand on the map of Digital Democracy along with many other countries.
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.
Waste not, want not
Database, Published on 10/03/2010
» This just in: Thailand will have 3G phone service in 2010; we know this is true because Prasit Prapinmongkolkarn of the National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) said so, as he marked the induction of four new commissioners into the membership of the Magnificent Seven; Mr Prasit said that the NTC's only reason for existence is serving the public by allocating radio frequencies, because an unused frequency is a wasted frequency; pressed by the always doubting media as to whether the NTC will really make 3G available everywhere by New Year's Eve, Mr Prasit declared forthrightly that he will "make an effort". His Majesty the King officially approved the appointment of four new members of the Magnificent Seven - Suranand Wongwittyakamjorn, Banthoon Suphakvanich, Phana Thongmeearchom and Col Natee Sukolrat, who has recently survived a graft investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
A small price to pay
Database, Published on 20/01/2010
» Your TOT board put huge red Xs across all the recent auctions and three billion baht worth of contracts to build a fibre-optic network for broadband Internet, and vowed to call new contracts; the decision followed remarks by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over the high prices of some of the bids, and your TOT will be certain to write new terms of reference for new auctions; the rather complicated auction was run in portions, for various parts of the country, but luckily for TOT turned out to total 3.03 billion baht, a full 0.01 billion below the budget; now they will have to do it all again, and despite what Mr Abhisit says, prices do go up, don't they?