‘Meaningful’ broadband policy sought
By Asina Pornwasin
The Nation
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Digital Divide Institute of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Arts have jointly proposed guidelines for the creation of a broadband policy which they say should have a meaningful impact on Thai society.
The proposal is a result of two years’ work by the university’s Meaningful Broadband Working Group to develop a framework, or research agenda, from which a broadband roadmap can be developed. It has proposed the creation of innovations in five domains and integrating them into a coherent model.
NTC chairman Prasit Prapinmongkolkarn said broadband policy was an outcome of integrating governmental policy with industry policy, a regulatory framework and public-private partnerships in rolling out meaningful applications and services for broadband.
“After years of postponement, Thai policy-makers are now rapidly formulating plans for bringing broadband to all Thais. Mobile broadband is a strategically important solution, in addition to implementing broadband access in the form of fixed optical fibre to the home. Now, 3G is finally on its way [with a licence auction later this month]. The challenge is to leverage the licensing of broadband to make sure all Thais benefit from it,” Prasit said.
To make national broadband policy effective, innovative elements are required from five “domains”, labelled governmental, technology, management, ethics and financial, Prasit said. Then, these innovative elements must be integrated into a coherent model.
He said the governmental innovation should find the right link between the regulatory policies of the NTC and the public policies of the Cabinet. The government must also consider how to use instruments such as tax abatement, public-private partnerships, public-private actions and state-owned enterprises to lessen risks and increase rewards for companies that introduce useful broadband services.
In the technology domain, the government should find technologies, including software, devices and last-mile solutions, to activate broadband demands in Thailand.
“The government should encourage academic talent to develop software and solutions to make broadband services usable and affordable for all Thai people,” he said.
However, collaboration between the government and academics is not enough. The government should invite private-sector organisations to bring broadband access to the masses, especially upcountry. To effectively execute these things, a management model is required, and private-sector companies are expert in these matters, he said.
The Meaningful Broadband Working Group has also suggested that the government should be concerned about the downside of broadband.
Prasit said Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Ethics in Science and Technology was currently formulating a research tool called a “meaningful technologies index”. It is an attempt to measure the difference between “good” and “bad” impacts of broadband.
“The government should not only focus on the social and economic benefits of broadband, but also the harm that broadband technologies bring, such as the risk of online-game addiction. This is one problem that could result if broadband deployment is not meaningful,” he said.
Finally, the government should initiate studies to determine the best financial model for making broadband access meaningful for all stakeholders.
Center for Science, Technology, and Society 
2 replies on “Article on Meaningful Broadband”
Turkey and Thailand, Women’s Solidarity Center
most broadband services are crappy, they can’t maintain high data transfer rates `*;