High-speed Internet

[george]

HIGH-SPEED INTERNET: TOT plans cheap broadband

BANGKOK: From next year, customers of TOT Corp should be able to enjoy cheaper high-speed Internet access under a state-sponsored cheap broadband Internet project.

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry is planning to order the TOT to set up and launch the project by next year to boost the level of broadband Internet usage in the Kingdom.

Currently there are only around 10,000 broadband Internet subscribers in Thailand, due to the high connection costs of between Bt1,000 and Bt2,000 per month, plus a one-time equipment and installation charge of Bt5,000.

“Under the proposed project, charges will be around Bt999 per month, with no fee for equipment or installation,” a TOT executive said.

Once the project is up and running, broadband subscribers are expected to surge to 100,000 in the first quarter of next year and to one million in the fourth quarter.

“The project will also pressure other Internet service providers (ISPs) to bring down broadband service charges,” the executive source said.

Recently, the ICT ministry also made cheap personal computers available to promote IT literacy among the public.

The promotion drove many local PC makers to slash prices to compete for buyers, lowering PC prices across the market.

Anant Kaewruamvongs, deputy managing director of leading ISP CS Loxinfo, said the company would launch a similar broadband service next month, with a monthly charge of Bt1,000, plus a one-time equipment fee of Bt3,000.

He said he was not concerned by the ICT Ministry’s project, saying his company could provide better service quality.

A source close to TOT Corp said TOT would suffer losses from subsidising the project of around Bt4,000 per broadband subscriber to the project.

TOT has estimated the project will cost around Bt5 billion.

The source also questioned whether the project would benefit broadband equipment suppliers rather than TOT Corp.

But a TOT executive argued that the project would attract new fixed-line subscribers to TOT, who wanted access to cheap broadband services.

TOT has almost three million fixed-line subscribers at present.

--Agents 2003-11-26

[george]

Follow-up:

Public access to low-cost broadband

B750-800 a month, with free installation

BANGKOK: Having successfully brought low-cost computers to the market, the government is now looking to provide broadband or high-speed Internet access service to the public at just 750-800 baht a month with free installation.

The programme is projected to attract one million individual users of broadband Internet by the end of next year, according to Dr Surapong Suebwonglee, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister.

The board of TOT Corporation will be asked to approve the project next Wednesday in order to begin developing it before the end of this year.

Calling the project ``Broadband Internet for the People'', Dr Surapong said he wanted to see more people use broadband Internet service to gain access to rich sources of information.

Without such low-cost broadband access to stimulate usage, the plan to create what he called the ``ICT City'' would not be possible, he said.

Currently there are only about 10,000 users of commercial broadband Internet service, which costs more than 2,000 baht a month, excluding installation of ADSL equipment costing 4,000 to 5,000 baht.

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, which provides high speed, always-on access to the Internet from a home or business telephone line, without interrupting normal and concurrent use of the line for phone calls.

Dr Surapong's plan calls for 100,000 users in the first quarter of next year, another 200,000 in the second, 300,000 more in the third and 400,000 in the fourth quarter. In total he forecast one million users by the end of 2004.

In addition to monthly charges as low as 750-800 baht, including valued added tax, there would be no ADSL installation cost. Speed options would be from less than 2 Megabytes per second to more than 2 mbps.

A TOT source said the company was already pushing forward with the plan in order to have it fully in place next year.

In the first stage, the source said, TOT would need to purchase a lot of ADSL equipment. But because of the red tape and time involved in a major procurement, TOT is expected to lease the equipment from private companies.

Three payment methods are being considered for the equipment: three instalments of 3,200 baht per unit; 24-month instalments at 455 baht a month, and 36-month instalments at 317 baht a month.

Trin Tantasetti, chief executive of Internet Thailand, a major private provider, said he supported the aim of the project but expressed some scepticism about its commercial prospects.

Citing the low penetration rate of fixed lines at just 6.6 million or 10% of the population, he said TOT needed to speed up its planned addition of 565,500 new lines to meet increasing demand.

Internet Thailand, he said, currently rented circuits from several providers including CAT Telecom, Samart and TelecomAsia to provide broadband services to customers without charging margins due to low usage in the country.

TelecomAsia is the market leader in broadband and most of its customers are individuals. A TA executive said the rate proposed by Dr Surapong was not commercially viable.

He said that although TA was the market leader with a 90% share of the 10,000 broadband users, it could not afford to provide the service for less than 1,000 baht a month as the rate did not reflect the true operating cost.

--Bangkok Post 2003-11-26

[singa-traz]

International bandwidth is artificially high, due to lake of competition in this market ...

[Dah fahrang]

Good old 'Ongan Torasap' - but absolutely no use for those living up country, who have been waiting over five years for them to install even a normal phone line - like me!

We must assume when they say raising IT literacy levels they really mean those of Bangkok dwellers.

[Thetyim]

Sorry to ask stupid questions, but can someone explain ADSL for me.

If the line is permanently connected then am I correct to guess that there are no phone charges for internet connection.

In addition to the 800 Baht/month do you have to pay a usage charge based on hours or megabtyes ?

[singa-traz]

Sorry to ask stupid questions, but can someone explain ADSL for me.

If the line is permanently connected then  am I correct to guess that there are no phone charges for internet connection.

In addition to the 800 Baht/month do you have to pay a usage charge based on  hours or megabtyes  ?

Correct, no additional phone charges for ADSL .... beside the existing line subscription and the phone call you make.

Currently in Thailand, for ADSL you pay:

- an access charges to the telco company

- an internet access charges to the ISP

800 THB per month is equivalent to or even less than what people pay for broadband access in Singapore.

For the ISP in Thailand, not to loose too much money on this, they would need to charge you based on time/volume ... unlimited for this price would be a killing ...

What some ISPs are trying to do is to have two pricing:

- unlimited for local web site (low cost for them)

- volume based for international web site (high cost for them)

Some ISP need to modify their biling system to cater for volume based pricing, basically measure your bandwidth usage (byte transferred), and charge you accordingly.

... Marketing people always wish IT could deliver faster ...

[george]

Update:

INTERNET ACCESS:

CAT to offer broadband next month

CAT Telecom is expected to launch a cheap broadband Internet service costing Bt900 a month early next year.

A source at CAT said it would spend Bt10 billion on the service, expected to start next month.

“The monthly fee is expected to be Bt900, which is cheaper than TOT Corp, which has set its price at Bt999,” the source said.

However, he declined to reveal if CAT, like TOT, would waive the cost of access equipment for users.

CAT is due to announce its cheap broadband service today.

CAT is the latest player joining the fray with providers and TOT Corp to offer very cheap highspeed Internet service to serve the new policy announced by the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister.

ICT Minister Surapong Suebwonglee ordered TOT last month to start a cheap broadband service in January. TOT is also expected to invest Bt10 billion in its broadband project.

Surapong’s order has prompted several Internet service providers to kick off a similar service in recent days to serve the policy and defend their market share.

Surapong also said he would get the ministry to produce broadband modems for 80 per cent less than the market price to support his policy. The price of the modems is tipped to drop to around Bt1,000, down from the regular price of about Bt5,000.

The modems can be used to connect to the Internet via highspeed Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL).

Surapong expects to see one million broadband Internet users within a year of the start of TOT’s service, up from the current figure of about 10,000 users.

A telecomindustry source questioned why TOT and CAT both needed to get into the broadband Internet service – given the huge cost – and whether the facilities set up by the two government bodies would be fully utilised or end up becoming underused and redundant.

The minister has also launched a “clean” Internet cafes project, to try to encourage teenfriendly shops. These venues will also provide cheap broadband service.

The first shop was opened two days ago and over 200 cafes are expected to join the project by the middle of the month, and about 2,500 tipped to join within a year.

Surapong’s cheap broadband scheme comes in tandem with his “Talk of the Town” project – lowcost computers for the public and for state officials – launched earlier this year.

Telecom Reporters

--The Nation 2003-12-03

[sabaijai]

I just came from a visit to a local TOT office here in Chiang Mai, and brought back a TOT brochure which says they can provide 65-128k ISDN service for just 100B per month. There's a one-time installation charge of 3550B. One can choose to rent the ISDN converter for XXXB a month or buy one up front.

After that you're charged 3B per connect, as per regular local calls. You can connect a phone to the same line and use it simultaneously while online.

Seems like this is pretty cheap or am I missing part of the picture? Like do I still need to pay an ISP?

What are most folks who want broadband doing, waiting for the CAT ADSL deal in January? If one goes with ADSL, either TOT or CAT, does one still need an ISP account?

Thanks for helping me clear this up. I've only ever used 56K dial-up (outside a few cybercafes) so am not all that familiar with the differences between ADSL and ISDN - except that one still needs to dial up a connection with ISDN.

[trigz]

Did anyone see the TelecomAsia ad in the Bangkok Post on Page 4 of Wednesday 17 Dec ?

They were advertising Hi-Speed Internet from TA @ 550Baht/month.

I am still confused about the ISP part - I presume to get the Hi-speed advantage one has to subscribe to an ISP so equipped to handle the extra speed or is it any ISP?

[Butterfly]

Did anyone see the TelecomAsia ad in the Bangkok Post on Page 4 of Wednesday 17 Dec ?

They were advertising Hi-Speed Internet from TA @ 550Baht/month.

I am still confused about the ISP part - I presume to get the Hi-speed advantage one has to subscribe to an ISP so equipped to handle the extra speed or is it any ISP?

That's for service only and then they charge you by the hours for Internet Connection

ISDN is the only cheap way to go for now but you need an ISP that can do ISDN since it's a special Digital line, not Analog

Also need to buy a ISDN modem

Used to be exapansive but now you can buy one for less than 2000 bath

[sabaijai]

What's "TA"?

[lopburi3]

What's "TA"?

Not what you may think.

Telecom Asia is the 'other' (than TOT) phone line source here in Bangkok; as TT&T is upcountry.

[ThaiAdventure]

To make the ADSL truely worthwhile the telcom's and ISP's need to integrate more closely and reduce the fragmentation. Most people want to pay a single monthly amount for what is (for them) a single service. The ISP's should include all the monthly charges and start-up costs within their pricing structure as does every other country in the world. Most people are put off by the huge installation costs which can be spead over a subscription period.

Example.

John Doe pays 5600 THB pm for ADSL. He has signed up for a 12 month contract.

Monthly pricing breaks down in the following way:

THB 300 for modem (12x300=THB 6000)

THB 2000 for Telco

THB 3000 for ISP

THB 300 for installation (12x150=THB 3000)

Total= 5600 pm

The ISP would charge 5600 and give 2000 to the Telco (who has allocated them...say 5,000 subscribers). It is up to the ISP's to fill thier quota of subscribers as they pay a fixed price of (5000x2000=THB 120M per year).

Based on full compliment of subscribers, ISP earns THB 180M income.

From the maths is it clear the ISP's are making a killing since they only have to provide a service not the infra-structure. They could offer Total services at THB 3600 (2000 to Telco, 1000 for ISP) per month and still have a healthy income of THB 60M per year.

This makes the ISP's more competitive since they are the ones touting for more and more customers. Once the line has been converted, the Telco just sit back and reap the benefits....hopefully re-investing in the infra-structure which will enable them to sell more subscribers licences.

[Sick Boy]

I was using Telecom Asia's dial-up internet for some time. Last week they sent me a fax offering broadband at special promotional rates. I paid 1,926 baht for the adsl modem which they delivered by messenger the following day and a monthly fee of 750 baht for a 256kbps package. They also have 512kbps and 1024kbps packages for more serious surfers. I was paying more than a grand a month previously so this works out cheaper and is much, much faster. The deal is you get unlimited access to local internet sites and 40 hours to international sites. Over that and they charge you 14 baht an hour. All in all seems pretty good. Been on a download jag for days now. Oh, and there is no charge for connecting whereas previously it cost 3 baht a shot. Sweet.

[ThaiAdventure]

Thats more like it

Sounds like they are leading the way!

[sabaijai]

So there's no TA in Chiang Mai?

[sniffdog]

TA Hi Speed is probably the best deal at the moment. Prices for localnet AND 40 hours of International use:

256/128 THB 750 / 14 baht over 40 hours

512/256 THB 1,150 / 24 baht over 40 hours

1024/512 THB 1,850 / 45 baht over 40 hours

Modem around THB 2,000. You can take it under your arm and install it yourslf (USB).

Costs includes DSL service + ISP

There is a 'show' at Pantip until Febr. 1. You can register there ....

A question ... I use an American proxy server to be able to surf some blocked sites. Can you use the same proxy server with a DSL connection?

[meadish_sweetball]

So there's no TA in Chiang Mai?

Yeah, there is, now. I just called up two companies who represent their services here, but was quite put off by the policy of only being able to access "thai" sites for free, whereas for the rest you still pay per hour.

Despite the increased speed (giving that the service doesn't suffer from constant interruptions and rookie problems, which these services will rarely fail to do), I will not benefit particularly from that kind of policy. I realize they have to pay extra to maintain connections to international domains, but current pricing seems way over the top, still.

I will basically end up paying the same price for Internet as I do now, with 3-4 Loxinfo 63-hour packs per month and a dialup connection, PLUS the installation fee, PLUS paying 15 baht for every hour surfed, because I rarely spend much time in the .co.th domains.

I find it hard to see why anyone who is not Thai and monolingual finds it worthwhile with ADSL currently, unless they are total mp3 or porn picture addicts. Any type of movies are too spacious to be downloaded efficiently by these quite modest speeds.

Sure, if you spend the majority of your days accessing Thai Rath and sanook.com, you're laughing. I'm not.

Here are the sales numbers to contact for Chiang Mai ADSL w TelecomAsia, taken from Bangkok Post. It seems the first company hasn't opened yet -

CM Computer Center 053 - 410 100 ext. 407 or 408;

IS Computer (Media Magic) 053 - 204 060

Niyom Panich Co. 053 270 020

Chichang Computer - 053 280 150

Wire & Wireless Co (W&W shop) 053 201 950

Better alternatives, please, anyone?

All suggestions are welcome. Will we ever see T1 - T3 here in Thailand? Are there any people reading this who really know current development of IT infrastructure in Thailand? Please tell us what you know.

Thank you again to George and everyone else involved for all the efforts with this site, and the excellent news info service.