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Published on March 19, 2008

A local telecommunications infrastructure provider, TOT, is planning to invest Bt380 million to lay fibre-optic cable around Phuket to help the island become a paradise of information and communications technology, research and development, and innovation.

The fibre-optic infrastructure will be built on the fibre-to-home concept, using high-speed networks to offer electronic services.

Pairojana Somsree, senior manager, Phuket customer service, TOT, said the fibre-to-home network would provide high-speed bandwidth capacity of 30 Mbps with 3,200 ports to high-end customers, businesses and foreigners who live in Phuket.

TOT expects the fibre-to-home network to allow businesses to provide various kinds of multimedia applications such as video-on-demand and home security.

"Phuket will become the first city in Thailand that has an optical network covering all areas of the province and this will help the government and private sector to provide one-stop service," Pairojana said.

He said TOT will expand the services to other provinces in Thailand if the Phuket pilot is successful.

"We think Phuket will have a new environment, where people in the city will be able to access new technology and experience facilities such as wireless Internet and voice-over-IP on the beach," Pairojana said.

Rattana Wetprasit, branch manager of Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) in Phuket, said the network would allow government agencies to develop one-stop services to allow locals and foreigners to contact government agencies and private companies electronically.

SIPA is also developing the Phuket One Stop Service (POSS), using service-oriented architecture to allow people to access government and private sector services from the Internet. 

She said the service is divided into two categories - e-services and data services.

Under e-services, the project allows Phuket Immigration Office and Phuket Employment Office to provide and access information from the private sector such as companies, hotel and hospitality services. The offices can provide tourist information and help people locate jobs. 

The services will allow the education office in Phuket to access information on students in Phuket in real-time via the internal network. Phuket Provincial Public Health will be able to keep a database of patients in order to monitor public health in the city.

The data services will be later extended to people in the city.

Jirapan Boonnoon

The Nation