Cabinet acknowledges Submarine cable – ASEAN Internet Digital Hub progress
Government house revealed that the cabinet has acknowledged the report from the department of Digital Economy and Society: DES about the progress of new Submarine cable lines and telecommunication infrastructure enhancement, a second phrase for upgrading internet efficiency, targeting to become an information exchange center and Digital Hub for ASEAN. The progresses of these phrase were divided into 3 following projects:
Government house revealed that the cabinet has acknowledged the report from the department of Digital Economy and Society: DES about the progress of new Submarine cable lines and telecommunication infrastructure enhancement, a second phrase for upgrading internet efficiency, targeting to become an information exchange center and Digital Hub for ASEAN. The progresses of these phrase were divided into 3 following projects:
1. To increase network capacity, equipment has been facilitated to interconnect through the country’s border for the amount of 2,300 Gbps. CAT Telecom Public Company Limited was tasked in the contract since 20 December 2018, they will confirm the number of equipment before the equipment is being installed at 151 network stations nationwide. It was expected to be completed approximately in September 2019 and now it goes as planned. (Operating result was 68%)
2. CAT Telecom expanded cross-countries submarine internet cable capacity for 1,770 Gbps and granted a license to the DES since 28 September 2018. (Operating result was 98%)
3. 200 Gbps for a new submarine cable connection with Asia-Pacific nations are updated below:
- CAT Telecom had considered submarine investment of ASIA Direct Cable (ADC) routes, directly connecting Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan as the main trunk line and branch connected with Thailand, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and South Korea. This agreement paper sign between members was planned in May 2019; the contract sign was planned in June 2019. And the construction was expected to be in place in 2020. And by 2021, the system test will be completed and a license will be granted to the DES.
ADC route technology was designed as a virtual direct route, providing Chalie 3 Sriracha Cable Landing Station in Thailand to connect Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and between Thailand to Singapore without roundabout transmission to other countries, the project plays an important role to encourage Digital Park Project according to Thailand’s EEC development strategy.
- CAT Telecom’s investment budget of ADC infrastructure construction had been forecasted about 60-65 million US dollars and each member will financially contribute the trunk line investment for 6.25% of its total construction route. For the branch connection, each member will take their own responsibility for the construction.
The budget of the Department of Digital Economy and Society will be allocated from emergency or necessary funds of the national budget for 1,000 million Baht to subsidy previous budget which were suspended according to new budget procedure act B.E2561. In addition, DES has requested more budget in a fiscal budget as of B.E2563 for 1,000 million Baht already.
- For legal terms, the ADC project is regulated under international laws, meaning that DES can only be granted a license to use the asset from the project, but the ownership cannot be transferred.
- ADC ASEAN Digital Hub will be of utmost advantage when many diverse routes are connected, from direct route to major destinations or connecting wi other region’s Hub efficiently and less time-consuming. ADC peering interconnects to other Hub countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan.
To clarify, ADC is the submarine cable interconnection directly to many countries such as Hongkong, South Korea, and Japan; ACD project is also accessible from Digital Park Thailand, an area under CAT Telecom and now is inviting international investors, who involved in 5G, AI, Could, IoTs, Smart city and Big data technologies. In order to be digital hub in ASEAN, Thailand pushed and combined efforts to improve domestic and international telecommunications system, with sufficient capacity and reserved routes for diverse interconnection so that we can connect to other countries in the region such as Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and Japan.
When ADC is fully constructed (another few more years), Thailand will acquire more capacity and routes to connect China and Hong Kong via submarine cable lines, it will support high usage due to economic growth and resulting Thailand’s international network effective and more stable, especially between Thai and China networks. ASEAN Digital Hub in phase 1 and 2 projects which are: enhancing network capacity to neighboring countries and extending submarine cable line from former existing will lead Thailand to be a complete ASEAN interconnection Hub in the future.
However, being a complete ASEAN Digital Hub requires many other factors and governmental support to attract content providers. For example, measures on specific electricity rate or governmental subsidy including tax incentive measures for competitive advantages.