Telecommunications Regulatory Environment in Thailand
LIRNEasia's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index, which summarizes stakeholders’ perception on certain TRE dimensions, provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tool measured seven dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-competitive practices; and vi) universal services; vii) quality of service, for the fixed, mobile and broadband sectors.
The average result of the TRE survey in Thailand (2.8 out of 5) reveals mixed performance of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), the Thai telecom regulatory body. Higher TRE scores for market entry (3.1), tariff regulation (2.8) and quality of services (2.9) are interrelated. That is, the NTC has clearly adopted a liberal licensing regime that has led to increased competition in many markets, in particular, the broadband and the international internet gateway markets. New entrants into the broadband market are guaranteed access to the local loop or can request for a WiMAX license. Abolition of the monopoly over the international internet gateway (IIG) was a major boon to the industry. Greater competition in mobile, broadband, and IDD has resulted in lower costs and higher service quality that helped boost TRE scores in these categories. TRE scores are slightly lower for interconnection, universal service and anti-competitive practices.
Read more about this topic: Communications In Thailand
Famous quotes containing the word environment:
“People between twenty and forty are not sympathetic. The child has the capacity to do but it can’t know. It only knows when it is no longer able to do—after forty. Between twenty and forty the will of the child to do gets stronger, more dangerous, but it has not begun to learn to know yet. Since his capacity to do is forced into channels of evil through environment and pressures, man is strong before he is moral. The world’s anguish is caused by people between twenty and forty.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)