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Published on November 24, 2007

The state agency's board approved the deal yesterday, said TOT spokesman Colonel Natee Sukonrat.

The company recently quoted Bt860 million to win the bid, compared with TOT's referential price of Bt976 million, before TOT bargained with the company for a price reduction.

Under the deal, Forth will install 167,500 broadband Internet ports across the country, except in Bangkok, for TOT. The project is scheduled to be complete within 11 months after the signing of the deal. The broadband network must be the so-called Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) 2+ technology, which can offer connection speeds of eight megabits per second.

TOT aims for the broadband Internet access service to be its flagship to replace the voice service, which has experienced shrinking revenue. The state agency posted broadband Internet revenue of Bt1.488 billion as of August, up from Bt736 million over the same period last year. It has around 200,000 broadband Internet subscribers.

Natee said the nationwide project had nothing to do with an earlier appeal from the Army for equipment support in the South, as suspected by the press.

 Usanee Mongkolporn

 The Nation