Ntc Plans To Introduce National Internet Policy

[yeti]

NTC plans to introduce national Internet policy next month

Published on February 04, 2005

The national telecom regulator plans to introduce a national Internet policy on March 25 and award new licences for Internet service providers in the middle of the year.

Sudharma Yoonaidharma, a member of the National Telecom Commission (NTC), said yesterday that the panel would start drafting the policy soon.

“We’ll hold a public hearing on the policy early next month before implementing it on the 25th,” he said during a meeting with all 18 Internet service providers (ISPs) to inform them about the moves.

NTC member Prasit Prapinmongkol-karn said the policy’s main objective was to liberalise the market and increase the number of ISPs to give consumers more choice.

“It’s better to have as many as 100 players in the market to give more choice to the consumers,” he said.

There are an estimated 7 million Internet users in Thailand.

Sudharma’s remark that said the NTC would award new ISP licences by mid-year is a relief for some ISPs whose licences expire this year.

However, he said, the NTC would not amend the existing ISP concessions. If ISPs want to offer services related to broadcasting, they will have to seek a licence from the soon-to-be-formed National Broadcasting Commission.

The ISPs yesterday agreed to jointly submit their problems and recommendations for development of the Internet industry to the NTC next week.

Some ISPs said during the meeting that they wanted the regulator to amend some clauses in their concessions to allow them to offer voice services via Internet channels and limit the powers of CAT Telecom – which is the ISP concession holder – over them.

They also want the national Internet policy to give them some time to adjust before opening the market to foreign players.

The ISPs said they were not concerned about competition, whether local or foreign, but needed fair treatment.

A representative of Far East Internet, a small ISP, said that smaller players with less bargaining power had conceded an advantage to bigger service providers when buying the Internet bandwidth from CAT.

He said that the small ISPs had to pay Bt150,000 per month for 2 megabits per second of the bandwidth, while the bigger players paid only Bt50,000 monthly for 4 megabits per second.

Bundit Wongwatanasin, president of ISSP, a new ISP, said small ISPs had lost competitiveness to some telecom operators who have their own data networks and fixed lines and provide Internet services.

While these telecom operators can use their existing facilities to capture the market, the small ISPs have to bear the cost of leasing or creating these facilities.

He said that while CAT cut the leasing cost of its international gateway for ISPs, the cost of leasing CAT’s domestic gateway was still high.

Anant Kaewruamvongs, deputy managing director of CS Loxinfo, a major ISP, said that there was no use in increasing the number of ISPs as long as the market monopoly situation remained.

Pornjit Tantipat, True Internet vice president for marketing, said it was normal practice for companies with a wide range of businesses to use synergy among their portfolios to offer services to customers.

True Internet is a subsidiary of True Corp Plc, whose businesses include fixed-line and mobile-phone services.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

It would be a good idea if this Internet policy could include the increasing of the international bandwith: otherwise new ISPs (100 ???) may decrease prices, but it will still be so slooooooow.

[astral]

Another bit of pre-election hot air?

[Phil Conners]

The usual bullshit again. Until every ISP can make their own peering agreemnts it doesn't matter, everybody still have to go through CATs crappy straw to the world outside.