PRIVATE SECTOR BACKS GOVT PLAN

The private sector expressed its confidence in the government’s Smart Thailand scheme to improve the country’s competitiveness, during a seminar “Making Way to Smart Thailand – Now or Never” last week, and also promised support for the national broadband project to expand broadband services nationwide.

The government’s Smart Thailand scheme aims to deploy broadband network to cover 80 per cent of the population by 2015 and 95 per cent in 2020. 

BNC consultant Say Sripaipan said the broadband project is driven by the supply side to make broadband network available for the Smart Thailand plan. TOT Corporation and CAT Telecom are the two key players who have to lead the way in expanding their network and to be the point for connection in the last mile of remote communities throughout the country. 

“In Australia, the government invested a lot of money to lay the broadband network to reach all 20 million people. But the Thai government does not have that kind of money to invest all on its own. Therefore, it needs cooperation from all stakeholders. For example, TOT Corp and CAT Telecom and other government and state enterprise as the main operators have a lot of resources and can use their existing network to be the backbone and then let the private sector connect to the last mile. With this approach, it is possible to expand broadband network to reach 80 per cent and 95 per cent of population in 2015 and 2020 respectively according to the plan,” said Say.

CAT Telecom’s senior executive vice president and acting president Somplo Chanprasert said that CAT Telecom currently has fibre optic networks, both submarine and territorial cable network, with enough capacity to meet broadband demand. It is going to invest in 100,000 ports for its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service, which has about 6,000, to 7,000 subscribers. 

“Now, we have a fibre optic network as the backbone to reach all 900 Amphu [districts] nationwide. We will offer the FTTH service to people in Bangkok, neighbouring provinces and big cities in the provinces. Demand for hi-speed bandwidth is going to be high in the near future for sure,” said Sompol.

Advanced Info Service vice president for Network and Service Planning Saran Phaloprakarn said that AIS in the short tem will invest in 1,800 more stations to ensure its 3G network is able to support customers’ data usage.

“Data usage has been rapidly increasing. Tablets and smart phones are two key drivers behind the huge data usage over the existing 3G service provided by 1,800 stations. The demand for data usage is higher than our forecast. We need to invest in 1,800 more stations to make our 3G services stable and reliable. But this can support data usage demand only in the short term,” said Saran.

He added that wireless network cannot replace wire line network, but in the short run for broadband expansion it needs wireless network as lower investment is required and it can be implemented faster. The 3G licence, which is expected to be available this year, will help expand broadband network to reach people throughout the country quickly and affordably. 

“Since the beauty of the 3G network is to support the existing 2G service’s customers, which is voice service with data network, that means we need not wait for data demand because demand for voice call service is already increasing throughout the country. If the 3G network has reached, it means the broadband network has reached, so the broadband network will reach people throughout the country in keeping with the government’s time line,” said Saran.

Total Access Communication’s vice president for Customer Group Peerapol Chatanantavej said that DTAC is committed to expanding its 3G network and will invest in 3,000 more stations this year and also provide Wi-Fi network in Bangkok’s city areas.

“DTAC will play a part in turning the national broadband project into a reality,” said Peerapol.

True Corporation’s general manager for Broadband Services Non Ingkutanon said the company has targeted expanding its broadband network to reach people throughout the country within next year. He added that by 2015, the minimum speed of broadband service would be 10 Megabits per second (Mbps).

“If the fibre-optic network owners reduce the cost of using the network for the private sector, it might help broadband service reach the last mile nationwide faster,” said Non.

Meanwhile, the chief technology officer of Triple T Broadband, Sukhum Chaolilitkul, said the company plans to expand its hot spots from 10,000 to 100,000 hot spots within this year. 

The seminar “Making Way to Smart Thailand – Now or Never” is an annual gathering organised by the Telecommunication Association of Thailand under The Royal Patronage.