News from Thailand – October 16, 2012
Bangkok Post opens today with a great article about the auction of 3G licenses. Because I don't understand it, I refer interested readers to the newspaper's website.
Regular readers of this column may have noticed that some topics are never or rarely discussed. I use the writing rule: what you don't understand, you can't write down intelligibly. It's just that I'm missing out on some readers. Better no message than a message to which no strings attached.
Also on the front page, ample attention is paid to the death of ex-King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. Prime Minister Yingluck and Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul are full of praise for the man who supported the Khmer Rouge (2 million dead).
Thirdly, BP pays attention to the speech of the German Finance Minister at the Bank of Thailand. Wolfgang Schauble said he considered it unthinkable that Greece would leave the eurozone.
– The police have found a witness, a man from Myanmar, who worked in the orchard of Supat Laohawattana, alias Dr Death. The man may information provide information about the couple who also worked for the doctor and disappeared without a trace in 2009. A second employee from Myanmar has already made a statement.
Supat is suspected of murdering two of his employees and the couple. Three skeletons have been excavated in his orchard, one of which belongs to the employee he killed.
– On Sunday, October 14, the newspaper reported that the authorities in Hong Kong had seized an amount of 16 billion baht, which had been transferred from Thailand two weeks earlier. That message now appears to come from the Nation Associate Anti-Corruption Network, which suspected corruption, and opposition party Democrats.
Nonsense, says Minister Pracha Promnok (Justice). The Thai Anti-Money Laundering Office has contacted colleagues in Hong Kong and was told that no such money transfer has taken place. Pracha therefore sees the allegation as a maneuver to discredit the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has challenged the opposition party to provide evidence, but it believes that the government should investigate and establish the facts.
– The coverage of the blackout on Don Mueang was also somewhat wrong yesterday. The backup system was not activated after 30 minutes, as reported, but after eight seconds. That system supplies 30 percent of the required electricity. It then took 30 minutes to check all systems before the airport returned to normal operation.
The power outage was caused by lightning striking a power line on Liap Khlong Prapa Road. This cable is one of two cables that power the airport.
– On behalf of former Prime Minister Thaksin (in exile in Dubai but still the man who pulls the strings in ruling party Pheu Thai), Pheu Thai will tomorrow file a libel suit against key figures of the Democratic party, who have associated him with the ' men in black'.
These black-clad, heavily armed men are said to be responsible for the deaths of soldiers during the riots in April and May 2010. They are said to have been affiliated with the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), but this is not believed by the UDD denied. Thaksin's alleged involvement came up on Saturday at a Democrat rally.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit says the Democratic party is trying to blacken Thaksin. "If the Democrats continue with these kinds of rallies, the population will be turned against Thaksin and Pheu Thai."
Deputy Minister Nattawut Saikuar (Agriculture, himself accused of terrorism for his role as a red shirt leader in 2010) is challenging the Democrats to provide evidence about the 'men in black'. He suggests holding a public debate so that the public can decide which version of the story is accurate.
– A filter is built into the tablet PCs that the students of Prathom 1 have received [or what they are still waiting for?] to prevent the delicate souls from looking for the wrong pictures on the internet. The installation of the system will cost 120 million baht. The system must be installed before the next school year starts.
The Ministry of ICT decides which websites are off limits. An adviser to the minister says he does not believe that first-graders deliberately open porn sites. [Isn't there anyone at the Ministry of ICT who could have thought of this earlier, when the tablets still had to be delivered?]
– 3.000 workers are working day and night on the construction of the Bangkok Futsal Arena, which should host the Fifa Futsal World Cup in November. Construction has been delayed significantly, but Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Patibatra is confident the stadium will be completed on time. Yesterday he, officials and journalists visited the 1.200-seat stadium.
Economic news
– The fuel costs of Bangkok's debt-ridden public transport company (BMTA) could be halved and new buses could significantly reduce maintenance costs, said Prasong Poontaneat, director general of the State Enterprise Policy Office (SEPO).
SEPO, part of the Ministry of Finance, has already approved the purchase of 3.153 NGV buses, which run on natural gas. Most of the BMTA's fleet can be scrapped when they enter service. There are also plans to install an NGV conversion kit in 323 buses that run on diesel.
In addition, the authorities have set aside 1 billion baht for the early retirement of 2.000 of the 14.755 employees. All these measures should allow the BMTA to start to make up for the accumulated loss of 76 billion baht.
In the first six months of this year, the BMTA made a net loss of 2,47 billion baht, 16,38 percent more than in the same period last year.
– Sukothai has the potential to become the center in Asean for tourists interested in Unesco World Heritage Sites. But then the city needs to be more accessible, says Nalikatibhag Sangsnit, director general of the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Dasa).
Dasa has therefore asked the Ministry of Transport to give Sukothai a stopping point on the high-speed line Bangkok-Phitsanulok-Chiang Mai. Air transport should also be expanded from Sukothai to other cities with heritage sites, such as Hue (Vietnam), Luang Prabang (Laos), the Bagan archaeological zone (Myanmar) and the Prambanan temple complex in Java (Indonesia).
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
The Thai are hopelessly behind with their 3G frequency auction. At the end of this month, various new frequencies for 4G networks will be auctioned in the Netherlands. After this, Dutch parties can start building a 4G network, but it will take at least another year before a significant 4G network has actually been set up.
The speed of 4G is 100 Mbit/s or about 12,5 Megabyte per second when you are in the train or car and 1000 Mbit/s per second or about 125 Megabyte per second when you are standing still or walking are. That is considerably faster than the current 3G speeds, which are between 5 and 10 Mb/s (megabits per second).
@Khun Peter Thanks for the clarification. You provide background information that I could not have imagined and I actually get it.
http://network4g.verizonwireless.com/
Holland is also lagging behind the USA, where 4g has been available for a long time.
At the auction for the new frequencies, AIS got the best frequencies by bidding the highest. So you have to take out a contract there if you want to use it with the best quality.
The government auctions these frequencies so that telecom companies can bid and that way the government gets the best price. This is the same in Holland.
With this new frequency you can reach higher speeds and thus watch TV on your phone while walking on the street. For the real phone addicts (and there are quite a few in Thailand) this is a must-have because it increases your status if your phone can do something that the other one can't.
Soon everyone will be watching TV everywhere, then they can follow those super intelligent comedies and soaps from Thai TV everywhere, yippee (ahem).
It would indeed be nice if Thailand had decent 3G coverage. However, I am afraid that this will remain a utopia for the time being. In some villages it is very difficult to get a decent GSM signal, let alone UMTS.
It is of course a pity for the Thai people that they do not have decent 3G coverage. Besides the advantage of being able to watch your favorite TV3 soap on your mobile or tablet, it of course also opens up the digital highway to news sites etc. In my opinion, this window to the world would be a welcome addition to the way Thais look at the world (and not only Thai of course, also other peoples who do not have access to information now).
Internet has its drawbacks, but I mainly see advantages. Therefore, in my opinion, it would be a good thing for the general development of Thailand and its people if the country had decent access to the Internet. In Bangkok and the big(er) cities, internet is not a problem, but in the many villages in the countryside there is often no fixed telephone at all, let alone internet.