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Published on January 23, 2008

"We picked Phuket for the first service launch, because the resort island has affluent consumers who can afford the premium-priced service," Sayan Tinsamran, TOT's senior executive vice president for marketing and product development, said yesterday.

A consortium led by Italian-Thai Development and Siam Fibre Optic will install a 200-kilometre fibre network with 3,200 broadband-Internet ports within 300 days.

The service will deliver voice, data, and video on demand at speeds of up to 1 gigabits per second over FTTx, or "fibre to the x", where "x" could be homes, buildings or any other site.

Fujikura, a Japanese vendor, will supply its FTTx technology while NTT-West Co, a Japanese telecom, will act as the project consultant.

Sayan said the state enterprise had spent two years on the project's feasibility study.

FTTx technology costs about Bt50,000 per port, more than conventional asynchronous digital subscriber line technology. The service fee is expected to be high but TOT will not finalise the rate until the launch date.

"We expect to break even in four years," he said.

The first phase will offer only voice and data. Video on demand will come later.

FTTx will be expanded to other provinces, including Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai, if the service

in Phuket proves successful, he added.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation