True Internet said it could start providing such a service within 10 days after being granted permission. It is a subsidiary of True Corp.

The company had already won an NTC licence to operate an international Internet gateway but TOT has still refused to grant the company access to its facility on the Thailand-Malaysia border to connect with foreign carriers. Suranan said that in a parallel move the NTC would probe why TOT continues to decline to allow True Internet to link with foreign carriers via its facilities.

TOT and CAT Telecom are the two existing providers of the international Internet gateway for local Internet service providers to exchange data traffic with foreign telecom carriers.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said yesterday that the situation in Thailand is expected to return to normal within two weeks.

CAT president Phisal Jorphokaudom said that six out of nine submarine cable links were damaged by the quake. Among them were the Asia-Pacific cable network linking Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan.

He said the agency had already restored two out of the six damaged networks and is coordinating with international telecom carriers to create back-up links, including via satellite.

Most international Internet data and voice phone calls are exchanged via submarine cables round the globe.

TOT executive vice president Kamthon Waithayakul said the quake had affected only between 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the agency's 007 and 008 international-call services and 30 per cent of its broadband service.

The slight impact is due to the availability of back-up links, but he admitted that the access speed of the broadband Internet has dropped as TOT has to route some data traffic from the damaged main link to the back-up system.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation