ATCI issues warning

Database News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

INVESTMENT / IT SPENDING ON HOLD

ATCI issues warning

DON SAMBANDARAKSA

Politics and the choice of ICT Minister will be the the most important factor as to whether the domestic ICT industry sinks or swims in 2008, according to the head of Thailand's most influential IT industry group.

Jumrud Sawangsamud, president of the Association of Thai Industry (ATCI), said that the industry is suffering from too many issues and major projects left pending and that an ICT Minister who knows about IT would be a major boost to the sector.

"As for the economy on the whole, while official growth may be at 4.5 percent, I do not feel it on the ground. People may have the money, but they are not using it or investing it in the IT sector. I hope domestic consumption recovers next year or we will have a big problem," he warned.

However, Jumrud did speak of a number of pending large scale government projects that could potentially boost IT spending next year considerably.

The National Security Master Plan will force government bodies to have a proper disaster recovery and business continuity plan. This will lead to huge investments in secondary data centres and in security.

The upcoming Data Privacy Act will have both positive and negative impacts on the industry and complying with this law will force people to be much more careful when dealing with personal data.

Mic Sachaphibulkij, head of the ATCI's networking chapter, hoped to see clarity regarding 802.11n Wi-Fi and WiMax in 2008.

While Thailand has this year finally allowed the use of 802.11a 5GHz Wi-Fi, the status of WiMax and 802.11n - which uses channel bonding on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz unlicensed spectrum at the same time - remains unclear.

"Regardless of what the NTC says, people are going to be importing it (WiMax) as it is going to be bundled on-chip. Does that mean we cannot sell notebooks with built-in WiMax in Thailand?" he asked.

Bangkok Post