NBTC urges Thai rice, Chinese set-top boxes barter deal
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The national broadcasting and telecom regulator will propose to the government that it exchange Thai rice for Chinese-made digital TV set-top-boxes as a government-to-government deal.
National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said that early this month the Chinese embassy in Thailand wrote to the watchdog to inform it that China wanted to make the trade on a government-to-government basis. Takorn said that this proposal corresponded with the watchdog’s plan to procure 5 million set-top boxes for the 5 million households with no registered ownership, such as government homes for state officials.
He said the government needed to consider the proposal.
If approved, the NBTC would ask the Department of Provincial Administrative to call the bid to procure the boxes for Bt690.
The NBTC has given away over 6 million coupons, each worth Bt690, so households can redeem them to receive a set-top box or buy a digital TV to support Thailand’s transition into the digital TV era. So far only 1.6 million coupons have been redeemed.
