ICT Ministry announces 15 flagship projects
The Information and Communications Technology Ministry yesterday announced 15 flagship projects for the three-month first phase of the "digital economy" policy.
ICT Minister Uttama Savayana said the projects included a CAT Telecom innovation park, TOT’s aim to have 2 million broadband users, electronic-trade facilitation focusing on rice and sugar traders, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, and Web services such as Thailand Post’s Postmart.com for logistics operations.
The projects fall into five categories: telecom infrastructure, government information, electronic services for SMEs, smart cities, and cyber-security.
Both TOT and CAT will need to discuss implementing some of the projects together, including international submarine cable projects and nationwide underground cables.
Uttama had ordered 10 ICT state agencies to propose flagship projects. Each agency proposed two projects, but the ministry selected only 15.
He said the ministry would provide budgets for all 15 projects.
All the agencies have to finalise the total budget for the long-term plan within 10 days, then the ministry will submit the projects to the Cabinet for approval.
On a separate issue, TOT’s labour union called for employees and others to gather today at its headquarters on Chaeng Wattana Road to defend the agency’s right to keep its bandwidth on the 900-megahertz spectrum after its concession with Advanced Info Services (AIS) expires today. This will be the second time the union has taken this action, the first occurring on September 22, when around 500 TOT employees joined the rally.
The union will submit a letter to the chairman of the TOT board about its right to keep the spectrum. It will also ask the Office of the Auditor-General and the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the National Broadcasting and Communications Commission’s plan to hold an auction of 900MHz licences.
The union also wants to voice its desire for TOT to receive compensation for its past amendments of AIS’s concession. The state agency has alleged that these amendments damaged it financially. Uttama has ordered TOT to give legal notice to AIS that it will claim damages of around Bt72 billion from two of the company’s concession amendments in the past.
Today is the first day that the NBTC will accept bid documents for two telecom licences on the 1,800MHz spectrum. It is expected that only four groups of companies will submit bids. They are Advanced Wireless Network, a unit of AIS; DTAC TriNet, a unit of Total Access Communication; TrueMove H Universal, a unit of True Corp; and Jas Mobile Broadband, a subsidiary of Jasmine International.
