TELECOM SECTOR
Plan to set up R&D institute gets nod
The board of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has approved the establishment of a telecom research and development institute to direct and coordinate the industry.
An NTC document shows the regulator has set aside a Bt100-million budget to establish the Telecommunications Research and Industrial Development Institute. The budget will be divided, with Bt23 million to be spent running the institute this year, with the rest to be used next year. Of the total budget, Bt15.2 million will be used to fund research and development this year and Bt60 million next year. Research will focus on three areas: network equipment, radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology - a technology based on radio waves that can identify an item, animal or person by an electronic tag capable of transmitting data - and broadband multimedia products. Of this year's Bt15.2-million research budget, Bt5 million will be spent studying network equipment, Bt5 million on studying the RFID technology and the rest on studying broadband multimedia products. The Bt60-million research budget for next year will be divided evenly over the same three areas of study. The institute, which will be founded under the Frequency Allocation Act, is expected to be up and running soon. "We need to have this kind of institute, in order to support R&D in the telecom industry and upgrade our R&D to world-class levels," said NTC member Sethaporn Cusripituck. "We have a huge pool of capable researchers, and if we do it right, we could soon produce our own telecom equipment and depend less on imported products," he added. The NTC has approached Kosol Petchsuwan, honorary chairman of the Telecommunica-tions Association of Thailand, to be the institute's acting president. The institute will study the telecom industry and technology trends, determine goals and strategies for promoting the telecom industry and act as a centre to coordinate researchers, telecom operators and educational organisations. It will also promote the use of the locally made telecommunications products and assist in protecting their intellectual property rights. The institute will be the third organisation set up by the NTC, coming after the Consumer Protection Institute and the Interconnection Charge Institute, neither of which is running yet.
Usanee Mongkolporn The Nation
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