Sole agency wanted for installation of permits
The Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecom-|munications Commission will ask the National Council for Peace and Order to assign a single agency from which telecom and broadcasting operators can apply for permits to install fibre optic and cable ne
NBTC Secretary General Takorn Tantasith said the outcome was the result of a meeting yesterday between the NBTC office and telecom operators and broadcasters on the issue of right of way. The office will submit this request to the junta in the middle of next month.
Currently the operators have to ask for the permits from a number of state agencies and are subject to their different regulations.
Takorn said the NBTC office had to hurry up solving this problem in order to support the digital economy plan of the government.
The junta might have to issue a new law to assign a state agency to do this one-stop-service task, he said.
The office will reduce the time it takes to approve permits from 30 to 15 days, he added.
Some telecom operators and broadcasters have also experienced problems with network expansion as the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority do not allow them to hang networks on poles in areas where the poles can no longer carry the weight of the networks.
Both state power agencies also remove power lines so they are underground, meaning there are no more poles on which operators can hang their networks.
The agencies can permit only state telecom agencies, not private companies, to install networks in underground viaducts.
