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Thailand's 3G development is a downright mess

True Move has given birth to Thailand's legitimate iPhone 3G today and is scheduled to deploy its 3G service some time in April. True Move was awarded permission by state-owned CAT telecom to proceed with a Bangkok deployment on the 800MHz spectrum. AIS is currently rolling out its 3G service on the 900MHz spectrum. Dtac is having fits of rage that approval has not yet been given to it to go ahead with its plans.

Until now, it was always expected that permission will be granted to the Big Two to utilize their current allocated frequencies to conduct initial testing and rollouts. However, True Move's progress has surprised some of the country's IT executives as it was understood that the company did not have the capital to roll out a 3G system, nor was it likely to get the official OK to proceed.

It has been widely discussed and speculated that CP, the major shareholder of True Corp, True Move's parent company, has offered more than its public endorsement to help boost Thailand's Democrat Party to power. With speculation of party donations and the rumored links to a minister in the current administration, it makes one wonder whether or not politics had some influence on this sudden progress.

The NTC's apparent stubbornness to keep Thailand's telecommunications industry stuck in technology from the late 1990s is doing the country more harm than its self-proclaimed "for the people" commercials. It is this delay with the auction and subsequent allocation of the 2,100MHz band that is forcing service providers which are on sub-concessions from state-run agencies to make do with what they have. In an industry that has seen independent analog telecoms companies adopt a standard GSM system with interoperable handsets, we are looking at them now being torn apart by their efforts to keep ahead of each other. How are the people to benefit from these telecom companies going their own way with their own technologies and not sharing a part of a standard 2,100MHz spectrum? The longer they stall, the more the consumers will lose out.

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It is red holiday for Abhisit

IT is 10pm on a Wednesday night in Bangkok. And there’s a picnic in front of the residence of General Prem Tinsulanonda, the 88 year-old chief adviser to the Thai king. A “picnic” if you disregard the phalanx of riot policemen standing guard along the concrete fence of Prem’s home, the red-shirted protesters shouting “ok pai Prem (Prem get out in Thai)” and a poster depicting Thaksin Shinawatra as Superman. Free food - fried noodles and bottled mineral water - is flowing. Most of the protesters are sitting picnic-style on the road listening to stinging speeches condemning Prem.

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