PlanetMan

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - For years Bangkok's skyline was haunted by deserted giants of rusting steel and graying concrete - half-completed high-rises abandoned when financial disaster ended boom times in Thailand and then swept the rest of Asia back in 1997.

Cranes may be whirring again across Bangkok the but there remain a tremendous number of the abandoned, derelict construction projects. Each one is further proof that the Thai financial market needs to do much more before it will be able to support smooth, sustainable growth. Think of how much money is tied up in all that unused concrete, steel, and equipment.

Some of these concrete carcasses, including several high-rises in Bangkok, are now being resuscitated.

Last year the Post said there were 508 of these buildings in Bangkok alone. I wonder how much money that is? Or what about "stonehenge", the derelict Hopewell elevated rail project. Hard to think of examples like this in countries with properly functioning financial systems.

These Thai businessmen only want to increase their monopolistic hold on the Thai economy, by not offering to other WTO partners, and wanting to exclude the Americans to boot.

This does very little for the Thai economy, and absolutely nothing for the Thai people, but as long as their pockets are lined with gold, why should the give a hoot? 

Free trade always benefits the consumers of the free trading nation. This is one of the few laws of economics that all economists agree upon. Free trade, and not the stage-managed, "pick and choose your favorites" trade of the bilateral Free trade Agreements, provides consumers with the greatest choice of products and serices at the most competitive prices. As SoCal says, it is only the Thai crony capitalists that oppose this. To their credit, entrenched, vested interests are the same everywhere.

American and other foreign companies are successful in Thailand not because they have some government-granted advantage over Thai businesses. They are successful because they offer Thai people more of what they want. Better selection, better quality, better service. Didn't we cover this in Econ 101 class?

Oh yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, I am an American. A frustrated American, seeing they way Thai people get treated by Thai businesses and the government. If I could export only one thing to Thailand from America, it would be the culture of empowered consumers and citizens.

The spokesperson in the press release in the initial posting says that current high broadband prices are due to ISP operating costs. This is a bit of a fig leaf. The real issue, the one that causes Thai bandwidth rates to be 30-80 times, on a bit per second basis, that of other countries, is the lack of competition among international bandwidth service providers. Meaning that as long as CAT retains their bandwidth monopoly we can expect to enjoy high prices, low throughput, and the occasional "Internet is down" events when a circuit fails in Pethchburi or somewhere else along a non-redundant or non-diversified path.

As CAT is not ABOUT to relenquish their monopoly the only way to lower the price to consumers is to reduce the throughput. That this already is common practice can be seen by simply comparing the price and throughput of "Home Pack" versus "Corporate Pack" ADSL offered by all the ISPs. Here is how THIS is done. The ADSL service providers, TOT, TT&T, TA, route the IP traffic of multiple ADSL circuits into 2 Mbit circuits destined for an ISP. How many ADSL circuits get routed to a single 2 MB link depends on what they call the "engineering ratio", which might more accurately be called the "concentration ratio." This refers to how many ADSL circuits are "concentrated" into a single 2 MB circuit.

Take for example, yer standard 256/128 kbps ADSL circuit from the ADSL service provider's central office to a house. If 8 such circuits were all routed to the same 2 MB line then the concentration ratio is 1:1 (8 times 256 k = 2 M. For simplicity set aside the issue of symmetric traffic.) Every ADSL circuit would receive full 256 kbps speed, regardless of what the other ADSL users were doing. I suppose this also could be called a "leased line", because probably no ADSL service provider in the world guarantees a 1:1 concentration ratio ;-)

In Thailand the ADSL service providers usually concentrate 15:1. Meaning the bandwidth you need to view a page on thaivisa.com is already being used by 15 other thaivisa.com readers. This explains the disappointing performace of even 512 kbps ADSL (Home Pack) You can do this math for yourself. CAT web pages offer 2 Mb circuits for THB 300,000/month. Unlimited 256 kbps ADSL from an ISP costs about THB 6,000/month. If you subtract out about 1,000/month the ISP pays to the ADSL service provider (playing fast and loose with the numbers here, for simplicity then the ISP nets about THB 5,000/month from a 256 kbps line. To simply pay the cost of the CAT 2 MB circuit requires 60 ADSL subscribers (60 x 5,000 = 300,000) If they are to cover their expenses and make a profit on it, double that. Hence, they cram the equivalent of 120 256 k ADSL circuits into a single 2 MB line. And "why not", they probably say. These are the cream of the crop users. If they can afford broadband at all then they can afford to pay dearly for it.

Statistically such concentration may not be so bad, because at any given moment the probability is that not all users will be using their ADSL. Thus, if you really want good ADSL throughput, you should use yours at times when other users are less likely to, like in the wee hours. Too bad if you have something important to do at such times, like sleep. Otherwise, if many users use at the same time, each user sees slow speed and poor performance, which is generally the case.

Corporate Pack ADSL has a bit better throughput, possibly having a concentration ratio of 10:1 or 8:1. But the prices rises more dramatically. If throughput is really mportant to you then get a leased line, but the price of those is truly astronomical. Maybe THB 30,000/month for a 256 kbps leased line. ISPs have said off the record that the service providers don't ewat to lower leased line prices for fear of cannibalizing their ADSL business. Makes wireless broadband like 802.16a appear all the more attractive.

In this context the proper definition to use for the word "pack" in "Home Pack" is the one along the lines of "to cram much into little", like overstuffing a suitcase.

The idea that low priced broadband can be offered to the masses while CAT's monopoly is retained just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Did some government talking head last week say Thailand is "very close to joining the first world"?