Single internet gateway clarified

[arrowsdawdle]

I should imagine those plans are already (being) drawn up.

I wonder how quickly they will be implemented?

Rather swiftly I suspect, if the business thinks " to he'll with it, let's just cut our losses and get out".

Better download your TOR browser while you can.

[MaxLee]

If they really will go for the one gateway (their was a time we had in the early 90's one gateway which was run by TOT only and it was down for days sometime. Only when Nectec took over the gateway did it actually really worked).

I might be wrong but Agoda would be the first that would close their operation in Thailand, followed by the other e-commerce players such as HotelTravel and the larger tour operators that have been over the past few years very upset of operating in Thailand. The complete supply chain business of all the car parts manufacturers in Rayong operator sophisticated systems on SAP that cost millions of dollars to be online 24/7. Even a 30 minute cut off could jam the manufacturing process of the whole plant.

I would be very very careful if I am Prayuth because with no competition and a single gateway we are back to the 90'.

In addition I would certainly move away from Thailand. I remember the early 90's when both KSC and Nectec asked me to drop by on a Saturday morning to figure out why the internet didn't worked as all staffs were not reachable, sick or didn't show up at the primitive DRC. Thailand should not emulate China. Is sad their is no one above the government to call those clowns in for a dress down.

I say it again, Thailand is going into the wrong direction. It was once a very free country but their is nothing left. Its now only about control etc but for all those peoples that supported the coup, be happy because you all deserve it as this issue is not about Thaksin. I have sold all my shares and moved the funds back overseas. The condo in Bangkok is on the market currently and the SUV is currently sold om TV.

I have a bad omen of Thailand's future for the coming 2-5 years for issues we are not allowed to talk about but I don't want to be around when the time comes.

Just imagine, how many times you have to click the payment button, just because the process doesn't proceed, and because the payer isn't sure, wheher the online payment went through, because of website process delay or connection interrupted,.... clicking twice, thrice,.... you get what I mean???

Edited September 27, 2015 by MaxLee

[Dustdevil]

Question is, to me, will they be able to block access to VPNs even if they are already on yout computer.

[englishoak]

Im curious how this will be received by ASEAN ? hardly moving in the same direction are they ?

[Dustdevil]

I lived in China for a year and had to deal with the great firewall. As an online gamer, its a pretty big deal to have decent connections. Heres what happens:

You have hard censorship and soft censorship.

Hard censorship are sites that are blocked by the state. Theres a list on wikipedia. Even my beloved grauniad was on it now and again. This is fairly straightforward stuff. Sites the government dont want you to access are blocked.

But what you dont really understand is the soft censorship. This is where handovers are jammed, locking up traffic and making non-Chinese websites slow to a crawl. On average a speed/ping test to San Francisco would deliver around 1/20th the speed inside China. Packet traces would show constant bottlenecks in the handover. Obviously i ONLY know this because i was constantly getting irked by an apparently broken internet. Its not because i actually understand what any of this shit means. Its still gobbledygook to me, but i spent a frustrating year running traces and doing speed tests. VPNs, great as they are, still end up being throttled. At best on a 30MB connection youd be getting around 2 or 3MB in mainland Europe and much less in the pacific. These would also be dropped frequently (kicking me out of my game or just locking up my browser).

The result is cynical: If you want to do business in China on the net, you locate your website in china. This means you'll need to agree to content terms devised by the state. Its almost ingenious in a way. You dont need to regulate your citizens and stop them from reading the news from outside of China, because the sheer frustration of waiting for websites to load does al the work for you. If youre on a mobile network and your baidu is loading at your carrier speed, whilst CNN is taking an age, youre just going to read the news in the state approved webpage. Also, if youre going to search for something, you COULD use google.hk, but given youll be waiting about half a minute for the page to even load (if theyre not locking it down) you might as well use Baidu again and get a bunch of results that are censored and approved by the state. Its like an intranet in a way

Anyways, hope that explains some of the knock ons to those of you who have yet to experience its joys.

"Yes, I'm so glad I'm livin' in the USA..." (already lived in East Asia and the Gulf Middle East for a combined total of 25 years)

[Shaunduhpostman]

Interesting how for this government explanations and clarifications are often nothing more than repeating again what was already said. The prohibition on alcohol sales orders that were vague and confusing were done in the same style, let us clarify, let us explain when in fact they simply deliberately made things even less clear.

These sort of brief statements on important matters for peoples lives as though no further explanation is needed are rather chilling actually. There is no concept of essential democratic nation foundations or any trace of any of these people having gone through a modern education process whereby things such as explanations, reasons for doing things or clarification or God forbid a discussion seem to have any place. If what this guy from the government calls a clarification or explanation is what he said and we have seen the full extent of it in the news report, he clearly has no idea what a clarification is and he seems to have little inkling that there ought to be a reason for reducing the gateways for the internet to a single gateway or any reason for other things the government might want to do.

It is simply, don't worry, we are going to do something that will save businesses money, that's all it is. Yet even this clearly needs to be explained, at least in some vague or token way but isn't. There is no hint at the need for a discussion of the obvious, that such a single gateway could present immense problems to pull off in practical reality. How would anyone in their right mind not worry. Or the obvious, which contradicts his statement that a single gateway will save businesses money, that it will conceivably present all kinds of problems to doing business, that businesses will lose their internet business due to failures at the internet gateway,etc. They know very well they are not willing to pay people people enough to run it well etc.

It all suggests to me that they may even well know that their scheme won't work and that this is an indirect way that they will be using to dismantle the internet in Thailand. That Thailand, in the we-know-what's-best-for-you Junta's estimation, cannot participate in a world in which the internet is available to all and by which much business and properity derives. And not only that, they don't even have the integrity to just shutdown the internet directly. That they have to hatch some boondogle that clearly won't work and when it all collapses mission accomplished. As someone pointed out, the situation in China makes what China has not an internet so much as an intranet. So in a sense, even if it does work somewhat, you really don't have an internet with a single gateway, you have an intranet.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Shaunduhpostman

[jacko45k]

Practically every sentence in that was a contradiction in terms.

[carlyai]

What Thailand wants, and what they actually get. Are two different things.

Very true, but in their bungled attempts to get what they want, I fear they will hobble the already hobbled international connectivity there is.

This is a country that cant keep the power on at the first clap of thunder, trying to implement this is waaaaay more technically challenging, so disaster can only follow.

I guess with the impending deployment of Google's Project Loon, it'll give the air force a good reason to demand more surface to air missiles, shoot those darn pesky seditious internet balloons down.

Every cloud has an authoritarian regimes silver lining I guess

'This is a country that cant keep the power on at the first clap of thunder', don't know where you live mate, but looking at the way you are dressed I would say not out in the country, where the PEA do a great job of keeping the power on.

[Jonathon]

Can the authorities be trusted?

Same as governments the world over, emphatically no.

[gemguy]

Would you trust what he says.....well, would you????.....lol ..... I mean with him being an honorable government minister and all.

Cheers

[bprsofteng]

Take a look at this site - there are actually two cable terminations now in TH which is good - the more the better.

However, routing it through a single gateway is a surefire way to kill redunandancy.

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/

[korkenzieher]

Best news Vietnam's business sector has had in years. Wouldn't be surprised if they start offering free business re-location to HCMC services.

[DaiHard]

https://www.google.co.th/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fchexum.co.uk%2Fpics%2F100_039_Sinclair_ZX81.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fchexum.co.uk%2Fentry.php%3Feid%3D3&docid=ckh8AMw0aQiqdM&tbnid=rTFXroLzNrBP3M%3A&w=1944&h=2592&ved=0CAQQxiAwAmoVChMIxbDGpL2ZyAIVhMSOCh2ILQk4&iact=c&ictx=1

exclusive photo of the new gateway (cost 10 billion baht inc. Tea money)

[txp158]

The most recent talk on TV regarding single internet gateway.... (sorry Thai language only).

https://youtu.be/sjOt0xdpkXM

Thailand currently has 10 (official) and 2 (un-official) internet gateways which are operated at any one time. The cost of maintainance and establishing single gateway is the main deterance preventing many governments from using the system.

[GinBoy2]

What Thailand wants, and what they actually get. Are two different things.

Very true, but in their bungled attempts to get what they want, I fear they will hobble the already hobbled international connectivity there is.

This is a country that cant keep the power on at the first clap of thunder, trying to implement this is waaaaay more technically challenging, so disaster can only follow.

I guess with the impending deployment of Google's Project Loon, it'll give the air force a good reason to demand more surface to air missiles, shoot those darn pesky seditious internet balloons down.

Every cloud has an authoritarian regimes silver lining I guess

'This is a country that cant keep the power on at the first clap of thunder', don't know where you live mate, but looking at the way you are dressed I would say not out in the country, where the PEA do a great job of keeping the power on.

Damm Dude, you can tell from an avatar that I'm nekkid!! LOL

Edited September 28, 2015 by GinBoy2

[jamiesilver]

this is a very very bad thing - and probably taksins golden ticket back in - despite the Junta thinking it will block his political prowess wqhen they block facebook twitter and line during elections, doh we had a malfunction for a few months...

[Cake Monster]

A very interesting post by @inutil re post #25 re " soft censorship "

I posted a few days ago about the issues I was experiencing useing " True " internet services.

Possibly " soft " is already here ????????????????

[Millenial]

Doesnt really matter as there are many ways around it.

Email, Calls, Video Conference, Messaging : Invmail the system is Zero Knowledge and End-2-End encrypted - like unbreakable encryption and client side.

The guy who owns the company is also based in Thailand, thats where i first heard of it at an event, they acquired a established company and remoulded it to their own uses.

Browsing/Searching : Tor - been around for a long time and used by numerous organisations across the globe.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Millenial