Communications in Thailand
Encyclopedia
Telecommunications in Thailand are based on an extensive network of telephone lines covering the country. TOT Public Company Limited
and True Corporation
operate the majority of the telephone network in the Bangkok metropolitan area while TOT Public Company Limited
and TT&T Public Company Limited operate the telephone network in other provinces. After the 2006 Thailand coup d'état in September 2006, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont
announced plans to merge TOT
with CAT Telecom
in order to operate a 'Telecom Pool' where providers rent the ability to be able to operate rather than receiving a concession with hopes that the new system will create a more competitive environment driving growth in the sector. After the General Election in 2008, successive government abandoned the telecom pool projects and continued liberalization process which had been undergone since 2000.
During recent years, mobile cellular telephone ownership has grown at a much faster rate than landline ownership. This was partly driven by the mobile communications price wars in 2004-2005 which pushed prices down to as low as 0.25 Baht/minute. There are approximately five times as many mobile cellular telephones than landlines in use. On current data, slightly over half of the Thai population owns a mobile cellular telephone, with more numbers allocated than number of population.
There are several newspapers in mass circulation in Thailand with Thai Rath
being the most popular. Of the several newspapers in mass circulation, three are English. Printed media in Thailand is subject to much less government control in contrast to the television where all free-to-air channels except one are government owned and run. This may change in the future as the new 2007 Constitution of Thailand
will have a section guaranteeing free-to-air channels independent of the government.
commitment, is complete by 2006
There are 13.96 million radios in use (1997).
There are 35.5 million televisions in use (2005).
The Asia-America Gateway (AAG)
is under construction and is expected to be operational in Q2 2009.
The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), a new submarine cable, is under planning stage and is expected to be operational in Q3 2011.
s operated out of Thailand
. Thaicom Public Company Limited is the company that owns and operations the THAICOM satellite fleet and operates other telecommunication businesses in Thailand and throughout Asia-Pacific.
Thailand-based Shinawatra Computer and Communications
Co. Ltd. (now Shin Corporation) signed a US$ 100 million contract with Hughes
Space and Communications Company Ltd. in 1991 to launch Thailand's first satellite communications project. The first Thaicom satellite was launched on December 17, 1993. This satellite carried 12 C-band transponders coveting a region from Japan
to Singapore
. Thaksin Shinawatra sold Shin Corporation, which owns 41% of Thaicom Public Company Limited.
's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index, which summarizes stakeholders’ perception on certain TRE dimensions, provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tool measured seven dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-competitive practices; and vi) universal services; vii) quality of service, for the fixed, mobile and broadband sectors.
The average result of the TRE survey in Thailand (2.8 out of 5) reveals mixed performance of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Thai telecom regulatory body. Higher TRE scores for market entry (3.1), tariff regulation (2.8) and quality of services (2.9) are interrelated. That is, the NTC has clearly adopted a liberal licensing regime that has led to increased competition in many markets, in particular, the broadband and the international internet gateway markets. New entrants into the broadband market are guaranteed access to the local loop or can request for a WiMAX license. Abolition of the monopoly over the international internet gateway (IIG) was a major boon to the industry. Greater competition in mobile, broadband, and IDD has resulted in lower costs and higher service quality that helped boost TRE scores in these categories. TRE scores are slightly lower for interconnection, universal service and anti-competitive practices.
TOT (Thailand)
TOT Public Company Limited is a Thai state-owned telecommunications company. Originally established in 1954 and corporatized in 2002, TOT used to be known as the Telephone Organization of Thailand and TOT Corporation Public Company Limited. TOT's main line of business is fixed line telephony,...
and True Corporation
True Corporation
True Corporation Public Company Limited is a communication conglomerate in Thailand. True controls Thailand's largest cable TV provider True Visions, its largest ISP True Internet and its third-largest mobile operator True Move.-History:...
operate the majority of the telephone network in the Bangkok metropolitan area while TOT Public Company Limited
TOT (Thailand)
TOT Public Company Limited is a Thai state-owned telecommunications company. Originally established in 1954 and corporatized in 2002, TOT used to be known as the Telephone Organization of Thailand and TOT Corporation Public Company Limited. TOT's main line of business is fixed line telephony,...
and TT&T Public Company Limited operate the telephone network in other provinces. After the 2006 Thailand coup d'état in September 2006, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont
Surayud Chulanont
General Surayud Chulanont is a Thai political figure. He was the Prime Minister of Thailand and head of Thailand's Interim Government between 2006 and 2008...
announced plans to merge TOT
TOT (Thailand)
TOT Public Company Limited is a Thai state-owned telecommunications company. Originally established in 1954 and corporatized in 2002, TOT used to be known as the Telephone Organization of Thailand and TOT Corporation Public Company Limited. TOT's main line of business is fixed line telephony,...
with CAT Telecom
CAT Telecom
CAT Telecom Public Company Limited is the state-owned company that runs Thailand’s international telecommunications infrastructure, including its international gateways, satellite, and submarine cable networks connections. As of February 2008, it had 5,562 employees.-Services:Until recently, CAT...
in order to operate a 'Telecom Pool' where providers rent the ability to be able to operate rather than receiving a concession with hopes that the new system will create a more competitive environment driving growth in the sector. After the General Election in 2008, successive government abandoned the telecom pool projects and continued liberalization process which had been undergone since 2000.
During recent years, mobile cellular telephone ownership has grown at a much faster rate than landline ownership. This was partly driven by the mobile communications price wars in 2004-2005 which pushed prices down to as low as 0.25 Baht/minute. There are approximately five times as many mobile cellular telephones than landlines in use. On current data, slightly over half of the Thai population owns a mobile cellular telephone, with more numbers allocated than number of population.
There are several newspapers in mass circulation in Thailand with Thai Rath
Thai Rath
Thai Rath is a Thai-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok and distributed nationwide. The paper is a broadsheet published with two sections. The first section is devoted to news. Although the news section is best known for its sensationalist coverage of crime and accidents, it also...
being the most popular. Of the several newspapers in mass circulation, three are English. Printed media in Thailand is subject to much less government control in contrast to the television where all free-to-air channels except one are government owned and run. This may change in the future as the new 2007 Constitution of Thailand
2007 Constitution of Thailand
A Permanent Constitution for the Kingdom of Thailand was drafted by a committee established by the military junta that abrogated the previous 1997 Constitution. On August 19, 2007, a referendum was held in which 59.3% of the voters voted in favor of the constitution...
will have a section guaranteeing free-to-air channels independent of the government.
Telephone
- Main lines in use: 9.1 million (2007)
- Mobile cellular: 98 million (2011)
- Fixed Line Operators: TOTTOT (Thailand)TOT Public Company Limited is a Thai state-owned telecommunications company. Originally established in 1954 and corporatized in 2002, TOT used to be known as the Telephone Organization of Thailand and TOT Corporation Public Company Limited. TOT's main line of business is fixed line telephony,...
, True Corporation and TT&T - Mobile Operators (largest first): AIS GSM 900, AIS GSM 1800, DTAC, True Move, Hutch (taken over by RealMove a subsidiary of True Corp.), CAT CDMA, Thai Mobile 1900 (inactive), TOT3G (i-mobile3GX, IEC3G, i-kool3G, 365)
- Major Voice over IP (VoIP) Operators: CAT2Call (CAT Telecom), TrueNetTalk (True Corporation), Mouthmun (Jasmine Internet), DeeCall (SawasdeeSHOP)
- Recently, the NTC granted the existing mobile phone operators the right to undertake "in-band migration" from 2G into 3G using 900 and 850 MHz. The IMT Band Plan has already been approved in January 2009. The proposed band plan reflects IMT 2000 recommendation. It is expected that the 2.1 GHz will be up for an auction within 2009. It has been reported that NTC will device Multiple Round/ Ascending auction technique for 3 blocks of 10 MHz paired and one block of 15 MHz paired. I
- In September 2010, NTC arranged 3.9G licenses auction (IMT 2100). But CAT Telecom sued the NTC in the Administrative Court, claimed that NTC does not have authority to hold the auction. Following a petition filed by the government's wholly owned companies, the High Administrative Court issued an injunction order on September 23, 2010, to stop 3G auction resulting in near guarantee of domination of the incumbent to exploit 2G services. Only government owned operators (i.e. TOT and CAT) are allowed to roll out 3G.
- The suspension order issued by the Administrative Court paved way for incumbents to undertake rent extracting activities rather than direct investment. In 2011, CAT sold its right to offer 3G to its concessionaire which is True Move in a complex M&A deal. The True-Hutch-CAT arrangement is under investigation by different agencies; while TOT sublicensed its 3G network to Samart Corporation subject to the Administrative Court deliberation of the legality of the contract. Liberalization and privatization are, in effect, put on hold.
Telephone system
High quality, especially in urban areas such as Bangkok; liberalization, as required by World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
commitment, is complete by 2006
- Domestic: microwaveMicrowaveMicrowaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
radio relay and multichannel cable; domestic satelliteSatelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
including new iPSTAR satellite, so far the heaviest comms satellite in orbit. - International: Satellite earth stations - 2 IntelsatIntelsatIntelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
(1 Indian Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean)
Radio
- AM: 204
- FMFM broadcastingFM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
: 334, shortwave 6 (1999)
There are 13.96 million radios in use (1997).
Television
There are a total of six free-to-air television channels in Thailand, which are: CH3 (BEC World), CH5, CH7 (BBTV), MODERNineTV, NBT (replaced TVT) and Thai PBS (replaced ITV and TITV).There are 35.5 million televisions in use (2005).
Submarine cables
There are five submarine cables used for communications landing in Thailand. Thailand has cable landing points in Satun, Petchaburi and Chonburi.- SEA-ME-WE-3SEA-ME-WE 3 (cable system)SEA-ME-WE 3 or South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 is an optical submarine telecommunications cable linking those regions and is the longest in the world, completed in late 2000. It is operated by India's Tata Communications and 92 other investors from the telecom industry...
, SEA-ME-WE-4SEA-ME-WE 4 (cable system)South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 4 is an optical fibre submarine communications cable system that carries telecommunications between Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria and France...
linking South East Asia to the Middle East and Western Europe. SEA-ME-WE 4 was operational since 2006. - Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore (TIS)TIS (cable system)TIS is a submarine telecommunications cable system in the South China Sea linking Thailand, Singapore, and IndonesiaIt has landing points in:#Songkhla, Songkhla Province, Thailand#Changi, Singapore...
operational since December 2003. - APCNAPCN (cable system)APCN or Asia-Pacific Cable Network is a submarine telecommunications cable system linking nine Asian countries.It has landing points in:*Petchaburi, Thailand*Mersing, Malaysia*Changi, Singapore*Ancol, Indonesia*Lantau, Hong Kong...
linking Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The cable is operational since 1996. - Thailand-Vietnam-Hong Kong (T-V-H)T-V-H (cable system)T-V-H is a submarine telecommunications cable system in the South China Sea linking Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.It has landing points in:*Sri Racha, Chonburi Province, Thailand...
operational since February 1996. - Flag Europe-Asia (FEA)Fiber-Optic Link Around the GlobeFiber-Optic Link Around the Globe is a 28,000-kilometer-long submarine communications cable containing optical fiber that connects the United Kingdom, Japan, and many places in between. The cable is operated by India's Flag Telecom, a fully owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications. The system...
operational since mid-1990s.
The Asia-America Gateway (AAG)
AAG (cable system)
The Asia-America Gateway is a long submarine communications cable system, connecting South-East Asia with the USA mainland, across the Pacific Ocean via Guam and Hawaii....
is under construction and is expected to be operational in Q2 2009.
The Asia Pacific Gateway (APG), a new submarine cable, is under planning stage and is expected to be operational in Q3 2011.
Satellite
Thaicom is the name of a series of communications satelliteCommunications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purpose of telecommunications...
s operated out of Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. Thaicom Public Company Limited is the company that owns and operations the THAICOM satellite fleet and operates other telecommunication businesses in Thailand and throughout Asia-Pacific.
Thailand-based Shinawatra Computer and Communications
Shin Corporation
Shin Corporation is one of the largest conglomerates in Thailand.- History :It was founded in 1983 as Shinawatra Computer by Thaksin Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and took on its current name in 1999, by using the first four letters of his last name...
Co. Ltd. (now Shin Corporation) signed a US$ 100 million contract with Hughes
Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...
Space and Communications Company Ltd. in 1991 to launch Thailand's first satellite communications project. The first Thaicom satellite was launched on December 17, 1993. This satellite carried 12 C-band transponders coveting a region from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
to Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. Thaksin Shinawatra sold Shin Corporation, which owns 41% of Thaicom Public Company Limited.
Launch Dates
- Thaicom 1 : December 17, 1993
- Thaicom 2 : October 1994
- Thaicom 3 : April 16, 1997; deorbited on October 2, 2006
- Thaicom 4 (IPSTAR-1): August 11, 2005
- Thaicom 5Thaicom 5Thaicom 5 is a Thai geostationary communications satellite which is operated by Thaicom, and previously Shin Satellite. It is used to provide communications services to Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia....
: May 27, 2006
Telecommunications Regulatory Environment in Thailand
LIRNEasiaLIRNEasia
LIRNEasia is an information and communication technology policy and regulation think-tank active across the Asia Pacific region. The organization is incorporated under the Sri Lankan law as a non-profit organization. It was launched in September 2004 under the leadership of...
's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index, which summarizes stakeholders’ perception on certain TRE dimensions, provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tool measured seven dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-competitive practices; and vi) universal services; vii) quality of service, for the fixed, mobile and broadband sectors.
The average result of the TRE survey in Thailand (2.8 out of 5) reveals mixed performance of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Thai telecom regulatory body. Higher TRE scores for market entry (3.1), tariff regulation (2.8) and quality of services (2.9) are interrelated. That is, the NTC has clearly adopted a liberal licensing regime that has led to increased competition in many markets, in particular, the broadband and the international internet gateway markets. New entrants into the broadband market are guaranteed access to the local loop or can request for a WiMAX license. Abolition of the monopoly over the international internet gateway (IIG) was a major boon to the industry. Greater competition in mobile, broadband, and IDD has resulted in lower costs and higher service quality that helped boost TRE scores in these categories. TRE scores are slightly lower for interconnection, universal service and anti-competitive practices.