From: nagamati@caldera.usc.edu (Romklau Nagamati)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Re: Demand for satellite dishes increases (from SEASIA-L)
Date: 22 Jul 1992 23:04:06 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: caldera.usc.edu
Keywords: telecommunication, Thailand

In article <22JUL199204014942@bestsd.sdsu.edu> cslac2216@bestsd.sdsu.edu (UNALOME TECHAMUANVIVIT (PIM)) writes:
>     Persons who are elgible for applying for the license must be;
>	1.employees of private incorporated company who hold the positions of 
>Managing Director or Assistant Mangaing Director or equivalant.
>	2 Civil Servants and members of the military and police with rating of
>C5 up or equivalant.
>	3. members of the Bangkok Municipal Councel, Provicial Representatives
>and municial Councelors.
>	4. residents of area that have difficulty receiving regular TV signals.
>	5. those persons who are not designated in group 1-4 may still be 
>apply for a license and will be considered in a case by case basis by the Post
>and Telegraph Department.
>

Can  someone confirm this please? I think the satelite dish is covered under
the Telecommunication Act (249? BE). Don't know whether it has been updated
or not. If this is true, I'm not in any above catagories and I already have my
licenses to 1) Establish a radio station, 2) to posses a telecommunication 
equipment, and 3) to operate the telecommunication equipment. I can't recall 
reading any of those requirements above when I applied for the licenses 
about 10 years ago. The fee for all the 3 licenses costs about B1150 per year.

The same law also covers the universe of telecommunication, i.e. TV's remote
control, wireless microphone, cordless phone, etc. And yes, you need a license
for your kid to play with his/her radio control toys. This is stupid. I'm not 
sure whether there're any provision in the Khot Khra-suang (Ministry of 
Transportation's regulations). If there ain't, now is the good time for one.

Rumor has it that the de-regulation of the satelite dish has already been
approved by the cabinet and is now waiting to be published in the Khot 
Khra-suang (Forgive my Thai!!!) to make it official. We will probably have
to wait a few more weeks to find out the detail of the regulations.

>	These regulations have never been taken seriously. It has been taken
>for granted that anyone who apply for the license should not have any problem
>doing so.  In most cases, the distributor would successfully apply for its 
>customers.  

PTT has been taking this stuff seriously for the past 10 years, FYI.
On an unrelate point, I don't know what's the big deal about the satelite
dish thing anyhow... The only news channels you going to get are BBC on
StarTV (ASIASAT) and CNN on Parapa... and you will need the dish that has
an actuator to switch between the 2 satelites. Trust me, StarTV is as boring
as IBC or TST cable.... Receiving anything from the U.S. is next to impossible
since the INTELSAT (the one over pacific not the Indian ocean) is just about 
at the horizon... Unless you're willing to install a dish the size of Sri 
Raja station's, you won't have much luck.

Ron Nagamati
nagamati@usc.edu

Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai