Thai Telecoms

With uncertainty prevailing over the future of 3G radio spectrum the Thai government has acted to press forward.  The Nation reports that yesterday the Telecommunications Organization of Thailand (TOT) has been granted permission to extend their current 3G service to cover the entire country. TOT said a search for financing for the build-out will begin immediately.

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With disarray and delay dominating the day in Thailand’s Mobiles businesses it’s time for some out-of-the-box thinking. Various sources report that it could take Thai courts, legislators and regulators 2 years or more to sort out the current uncertainty concerning 3G spectrum.

This additional time must be viewed in the context that the first 3G networks deployed around 10 years ago and 3G has been the global standard for at least 6 or 7 years already. Launching a 3G network now, in 2010, would be a stunningly booring accomplishment that would hardly be noticed by the rest of the world. Such an announcement is likely to be lost among a sea of 4G launches and services. Thailand risks becoming the joke of the world’s media for being so late to the 3G party.

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The Nation reports that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has responded to Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) “you have no authority to auction 3G spectrum” lawsuit with a defiant “yes we do!”

You might recall that CAT last week filed an injunction with the Supreme Administrative Court to prevent the NTC from auctioning 3G spectrum to incumbent mobile operators AIS, DTAC and True Move.  The Court granted that injunction on the basis of CAT’s claim that the 2007 constitution granted authority to allocate spectrum to a new, yet-to-be-created regulator called the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

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As Thai Telecoms reported Monday, the attempts to delay the Thai 3G auctions has been successful.  The Supreme Administrative Court Friday ruled that the complaint filed by Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) has merit and the auction must be delayed until the Court can render a final decision.  The Court agreed to announce that decision Monday morning, the same day of the planned auctions, 20 September. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the body who had planned to hold the auction Monday, said that even a favorable ruling Monday, a ruling which would allow the auction to proceed as planned, would still trigger a delay.

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The region’s media are reporting that the Thai Administrative Court has agreed to hear a motion by the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) to postpone the upcoming spectrum auctions. Bangkok Post, Nation Multimedia, TelecomAsia and others have details of the story.  CAT contends the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) lacks the authority to hold the auction.  The court declined to postpone the auction, but said NTC testimony on the matter would be heard prior to the planned auctions date next Monday, 20 September.

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It has happened many times over the last couple years:  a friend or colleague who has previously been totally inactive on LinkedIn suddenly starts connecting and posting and generally making up for lost time.  Many times this indicates a change of employment is imminent or has recently passed.

I’ve not read of this phenomenon elsewhere, though I won’t be surprised if someone else has already identified it.  Until prior art is revealed, I’ll call it Lundberg’s Law of LinkedIn Laziness.  With Luck it might enter the vernacular.

Succinctly put, Lundberg’s Law states that a step function in the intensity of professional networking activity indicates an unplanned career move is afoot.

Math whizzes in the audience might prefer “the second derivative with respect to time of one’s professional network is proportional to the unexpectedness of a sudden career change.”

What it means is this: don’t lazily ignore your network and wait until you need it to feed it.  Connecting with colleagues, coworkers and acquaintances should be part of your daily routine. Chat up old colleagues, reconnect with past associates, check in occasionally with industry groups.  Stay active.  Stay visible.  Stay relevant.

If you are continually active, you’ll have a much healthier network at at time when that will be important to you, and you’ll avoid implicitly advertising that you’ve had a sudden career change thrust upon you.

If you ignore your professional network, it won’t serve you well when you most need it.

David Phillips of Kordia Thailand called our attention to this article in the Bangkok Post which advocates the optimistic view that now that the 4 new members of Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) had been royally endorsed 3G services should expect to be launched before the end if the year. (more…)

Greetings from Thai Telecoms. We are Telecoms professionals with an interest in the Thai market. Our intent is to survey, monitor and comment on telecommunications in Thailand, especially mobile telecoms. The upcoming spectrum auctions should be especially interesting.

We’ve only just completed the process of registering the domain and put up the web server, so please bear with us as we get started.

If you’d like to contribute an article we’d be happy to post it. Of course, the right to edit and even reject articles will be reserved. Thanks for understanding.

Now please join the adventure.

-Russell