NBTC to put telecom cables in Bangkok underground soon

[webfact]

NBTC to put telecom cables in Bangkok underground soon

BANGKOK, 20 January 2015 (NNT) – The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is seeking to put telephone cables in Bangkok underground, as the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) will not longer allow additional telecom cables to be carried on electricity poles.

The NBTC met with representatives from telecom companies and the MEA on Monday to discuss the issue of telecom cables that are routed alongside electric cables on electricity poles, after the MEA's refusal to allow installation of additional telecom cables on electricity poles had become an issue with telecom companies seeking to increase bandwidth and channels. The MEA was relocating all its power cables in Bangkok underground along roads instead of on electricity poles.

According to the NBTC, it will either have the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration or the state-owned telecom companies TOT and CAT invest in the underground telecom cables. Private companies will then be able to rent the cables, which will be put at a depth of 60 centimeters. Electric cables will sit further down, at a dept of 2 meters.

NBTC officials indicated that regulations of relevant agencies will need modification to facilitate the underground cables, and at least 10 billion baht of budget is expected to be required to put the telecom cables underground.

Failure to quickly put the cables underground will have direct consequences upon the 'digital economy' strategy being pursued by the government, as telecom businesses are currently unable to expand their networks due to the limited number of cables available, said NBTC Secretary-General Takorn Tantasith.


-- NNT 2015-01-20

[chooka]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

[draftvader]

Possibly a question of flooding? I'm aware of decent shielding, I'm also aware of the prices of imported Western hi-so goods.....

[oneday]

No problem. Just lay the cables ON the ground and in a couple of years they should be just about where they want them UNDERGROUND.

[patyh]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

I've work with electrical contractor and MEA before so I can give you a rough list of excuses they use.

1. Cost

Often, when you ask MEA why don't they put cables underground, they often put the blame to cost. Yet if we really sit down and compare (Which I've done for my project before) you will realise that the cost isn't that far off considering how shallow they will lay the electrical cable. Sometimes, the cost could be cheaper depending on area, labour, and material used for the poles vs the cost of labour and equipment to lay the cables underground.

2. We're sinking

This is extremely common, you keep hearing people tell you, Bangkok is sinking, so we cannot have any cables underground. To that I say, tell that to the MWA with their sewage system. And underground parking. And well, basically any structure. Since most of them would have to dig underground for a certain depth.

But I think the major issue with the MEA, MWA and the teleco company is this: The lack of Co-ordination between them. Like all Thai governments department, they seldom work together, much less share information among them. Someone should wake up and say, let's create an organisation for us to share our plans! Like when do one guy dig, so that the others can share the cost and piggy back on the project as well.

But like we say here, TIT. what can we expect to change.

[attrayant]

Another problem is moisture seeping into the casings. The central office has to pump air into the cables before they leave the cable vault in order to create positive pressure and discourage water from seeping into small cracks that will inevitably form.

If copper pairs get wet, it creates havoc with voice communications and data simply won't work at all.

Edited January 20, 2015 by attrayant

[webfact]

All telecom fibre optic cabling must be laid underground



BANGKOK: -- Bangkok streets with overhead telecom fibre optic, and other ugly black fire-hose sized utility cable lines snaked between power poles will be slowly out of sight after the telecom regulator met telecom operators and the electricity supplier yesterday in attempt to get rid of this ugly scenes.

The meeting was called by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and was participated by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) and state and private telecom operators

The action of the NBTC came after the MEA has determined not to allow additional telecom cables to be carried on its power poles.

They discussed the issue of telecom operators snaked their fibre optic cables and copper wires between power poles alongside power cables between power poles, and the MEA’s clear direction that no further ugly cabling will be allowed as telecom operators are planning expansion to cope with more bandwidths and digital telecom services.

Currently the MEA is relocating some of its overhead power cables in Bangkok underground.

According to the meeting, the NBTC will either have the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration or the state-owned telecom companies TOT Plc and CAT Telecom invest in the underground telecom cables.

Private companies will then be able to rent the cables, which will be put at a depth of 60 centimetres, while power cables will laid deeper at two metres below ground level.

NBTC officials, however, indicated that regulations of relevant agencies will need to be amended to facilitate the underground cabling, and at least 10 billion baht of budget is expected to be required to put the telecom cables underground.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said failure to quickly put the cables underground would have direct consequences upon the ‘digital economy’ strategy being pursued by the government, as telecom businesses are currently unable to expand their networks due to the limited number of cables available.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/telecom-fibre-optic-cabling-must-laid-underground


-- Thai PBS 2015-01-20

[tingtongfarang]

Another problem is moisture seeping into the casings. The central office has to pump air into the cables before they leave the cable vault in order to create positive pressure and discourage water from seeping into small cracks that will inevitably form.

If copper pairs get wet, it creates havoc with voice communications and data simply won't work at all.

Another reason for airpresure is its normally sealed in sections, if the cable gets damaged the company would know which section to look at first.

[Doc46]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

I would ask,,,Whom the bloody hell is going to pay for all this crap,,The cost for Electric & Telecom/Tv /sat TV are already over priced,,,,So next thing all this crap is going to do is make everything more expensive,,,,,,,Welcome to the Stupid Western World,What a laugh,,,,Don't fix it if it ain't broke,,,,

[Jonmarleesco]

Further technology advances will have left them behind before they've even dug a hole.

[jayjayjayjay]

Errrr.... It might just be time to build a new capital city

[Nemesis7]

Good to know.

[mikiea]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

well now , I figure at least 16 kabillion miles of wire to be buried underground . this will lead to Bangkok becoming da hub of laying pipe ... errr.... cable and wires .

[chooka]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

well now , I figure at least 16 kabillion miles of wire to be buried underground . this will lead to Bangkok becoming da hub of laying pipe ... errr.... cable and wires .

I was talking about new estates, not rewiring the entire bangkok

[jaywalker]

Further technology advances will have left them behind before they've even dug a hole.

They'll probably invent a way to transmit electricity wirelessly before they get past the first "Lawsuit" from a whining utility company.

[KhnomKhnom]

Underground cables pro and con.......

Pro, not so easy to steal for the copper.

Pro, safe from car crashes.

Pro, has more lightning protection.

Looks nicer.

Cons......

needs best sealing.

will be subject to insect eating.

does electrify the earth a little bit (as overhead does the air).

ignorant diggers in for huge surprise...for electric supply cables.

The existing poles do have a load limit and guess they exceeded that some yrs ago.

[KhnomKhnom]

Further technology advances will have left them behind before they've even dug a hole.

They'll probably invent a way to transmit electricity wirelessly before they get past the first "Lawsuit" from a whining utility company.

Old Nick Tesla has such a system to broadcast electric power, no wires needed. His money partner, Mr. Westinghouse, said no... to difficult to meter and charge for power.

[rickirs]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Further technology advances will have left them behind before they've even dug a hole.

They'll probably invent a way to transmit electricity wirelessly before they get past the first "Lawsuit" from a whining utility company.

Too late. Already been done. http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity?language=en

[ggt]

If this actually happens...it would become the single most important thing Bangkok has done to make their city more beautiful in recent history...pray it catches on and becomes mandatory thru out the country...this is real progress...

[bangon04]

If this actually happens...it would become the single most important thing Bangkok has done to make their city more beautiful in recent history...pray it catches on and becomes mandatory thru out the country...this is real progress...

Yes indeed. How is the 3G coming along?

Next step is nuclear power...

[tw25rw]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

Maybe Australia should do the same now... First thing I notice when I go back is overhead cables and the mangled trees thanks to the council..

[tw25rw]

Further technology advances will have left them behind before they've even dug a hole.

They'll probably invent a way to transmit electricity wirelessly before they get past the first "Lawsuit" from a whining utility company.

Old Nick Tesla has such a system to broadcast electric power, no wires needed. His money partner, Mr. Westinghouse, said no... to difficult to meter and charge for power.

You would think that if there was a practical way of doing it, there would be some form of wireless power transmission on the market somewhere even if the utilities didn't like it. I have never seen it and think there could be uses for it if it was real..

[MrY]

They wouldn't exactly be breaking new ground, would they... (Pun intended)

I think the technological challenges of laying cable in wet conditions were pretty much solved "a while" ago (transatlantic cable, for example). Having lived along two streets that got dug up [in Thailand], and observing the proceedings, I'd say one of the major challenges is that nobody knows what is already laid underground and where.

[chooka]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

Maybe Australia should do the same now... First thing I notice when I go back is overhead cables and the mangled trees thanks to the council..

everything is underground in our area so Australia is doing it.

[duckmandon]

Great news. Bury them & get the ugly sh*t out of sight. As this has been happening for 30 odd years elsewhere in the world its about time they caught up. They also need to make one carrier so the others then rent line space off them, not keep running cables evrey time a customer changes telco's. Hope they start in Chiang Mai as well.

Edited January 21, 2015 by duckmandon

[cup-O-coffee]

If this even begins to happen it will be utter chaos, and the surrounding factors of illegal cables and the impact it will play on those who do this will result in even more chaos.

I see nothing but utter chaos and failure. if I think about anything else they have attempted to do on even 1/10 this scale.

[draftvader]

They have had the perfect opportunity to do this whilst working on the new BTS & MRT lines. With the ground up to lay the pylons they could have put in new trunks for when they are ready. Even if the cables only went under ground on the main arteries it would have been a start.

[fgmr]

Wow Thailand, welcome to the 1930's. Where have you been the rest of the world has been doing this since Adam was on the beast. What you should also be doing is putting all electric and phone cables under ground when you build all these new estates.

I would ask,,,Whom the bloody hell is going to pay for all this crap,,The cost for Electric & Telecom/Tv /sat TV are already over priced,,,,So next thing all this crap is going to do is make everything more expensive,,,,,,,Welcome to the Stupid Western World,What a laugh,,,,Don't fix it if it ain't broke,,,,

What a load of crap? your avatar says it all. Ever expoerienced a power cable snapping whilst standing under it? I say it is not before time that these cables are shoved underground; but what about the rest of the country?