Love but not trust online

Database News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

HOME REVIEW

Love but not trust online

Thais would really, really love to shop online, said a study by a King Mongkut's University of Technology (KMUT) Lat Krabang researcher, but they don't trust the system; Pongchai Ni-larch, in a report for the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, estimated Thai e-commerce at about 100 billion baht a year, lower than almost any neighbouring country; the biggest online earner is business-to-business, a 20th century concept; the 8.5 million Internet users (10.5 million a year from now, guesstimated Kasikorn Research Center) simply lack confidence there is much security behind the e-scenes, and do not want to turn over their credit or bank details just to buy something.

Your TOT board chairman Gen Saprang Kalayanamitr proved just how democratic and magnanimous a military coup supporter could be; he sent the board directors off on a "working" tour of Europe similar to the one he actually led for his other state firm, the Airports of Thailand; this time, though, the general sat out the tour at home while your TOT board did extensive fact-finding at British Telecom, France Telecom and Telecom Italia.

The board of your TOT began to grow testy with slow construction of equipment to provide another 565,000 fixed-line telephone numbers and 220,000 high-speed Internet connections; spokesman Col Natee Sukolrat said Huawei, Ericsson and Siemens had promised the new numbers for last August, and TOT was spending its 5.799 billion baht on shoddy performance; for now, he said, the only question is how much the fine will be against the companies.

Your CAT Telecom, however, admitted it was not a fine company at all, and pleaded for the Office of the Attorney-General to lower the boom on its friends at Huawei of China; CAT has consistently refused to fine or otherwise punish Huawei for late delivery of its CDMA yuppiephone network; CAT has also been heavily distressed by obviously untrue but persistently mean rumours that it enjoys some special relationship with Huawei fuelled by gelt.

Piyaphan Nimmanhaeminda, director-general of the Comptroller General's Department and chairman of the board of the Government Lottery Office, said it was absolutely necessary to sell tickets on the two- and three-digit numbers game next year through networked vending machines; that's because (remember? way back in the 20th century?) the GLO gave the contract to install and run such machines to Loxley; a lot is still riding on that contract, if you catch our drift.

Up-country fixed-line provider TT&T unveiled a business restructuring plan at a conference in South Korea; among other grandiosities announced over heaping dishes of Seoul food, president Prachuab Tantinond said he intends to list all three flagship subsidiaries - Triple T Broadband Co, TT&T Subscriber Services Co and Triple T GlobalNet Co - on the Stock Exchange of Thailand and MAI next year, to raise two billion baht or more; Thailand's biggest loss-leading private telecoms firm will freeze all activities in fixed-line services and try to build other data and broadband services where, of course, it does not have to pay usurious concession fees to any state enterprise.

Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) suddenly decided to leap into the competition to get that lovely government loot for building an eco-car; the project once seemed to be in Toyota's pocket, but that was back in the Thaksin days; with ministers not quite so close to certain companies, a number of auto companies may get to dip into your pockets to finance themselves.

PTT president Prasert Bunsumpun reacted for reactors; he said the current, interim government had it exactly right about energy and called on politicians to accept and develop an energy plan including nuclear power; he even praised the energy bills of the Surayud government as "progressive compared with those of past governments."

If you weren't at the annual Bangkok Motor Expo you missed the pitch for gasohol E20-capable cars for lower prices than the regular gasoline models; Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi and Nissan generously gave discounts even though real tax cuts won't kick in until New Year's Day; of course you can't buy E20 fuel - 20 percent plants, 80 percent fossil - but the cars will also run on E10, which is cheaper than real gasoline even though it makes Mother Gaia more angry.

No 2 yuppiephone network DTAC of Norway publicly pointed and laughed at No 3 True Move of Thailand for claiming had attracted 2.1 million new subscribers in the third quarter; it was nothing but creative cookkeeping said DTAC chief commercial officer Thana Thienachariya, who will not be invited to the next barbeque by the Chicken People.

The geeks of Chulalongkorn University invented a better rescue robot, and won a trip to China to play in the world title matches next year; the robot named Plasma-RX is a largely autonomous rescuer, able to carry out its task even if communications with the human controllers fail; once started on a task, the wheeled robot will continue its job. Three educational units combined to set up an online astronomy course for teachers who want to improve their knowledge of the subject; Chulalongkorn University's faculty of education, the Thailand Research Fund and the Learning centre for Earth Science and Astronomy will be offering "From the Sky to Classroom" beginning in January.

Bangkok Post