DEPUTY Prime Minister Prajin Juntong, who is temporarily in charge of the new Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDE), said yesterday that TOT and CAT Telecom should speed up their consolidation by merging three units and competing with each other in some areas.
The ministry will call in Thaicom to discuss the ministry's plan to reform the satellite-service industry by next month.
The MDE has to follow the Cabinet's resolution by bringing the Thaicom 7 and 8 satellites under the ministry's concession regime.
The ministry's plan to roll out free broadband Internet access to 30,000 vil-lages nationwide is expected to be delayed by three to four months, but the installation of the network should be completed by the end of next year, he said.
On July 11, the State Enterprise Policy Commission instructed TOT and CAT to complete the merger of their three core operations by hiring consultants separately for the merger plan within three months, setting up the consolidated companies within six months and transferring all assets to them within a year.
The commission, also known as the "superboard", ordered them to merge their transmission and fibre-optics net-works into the National Broadband Network Co with Bt15 billion of asset valuation.
Their Internet gateway and submarine-cable networks will become the Neutral Gateway Network Co with Bt5 billion of asset valuation.
Their Internet data centres will become IDC Co.
Prajin delivered a policy speech to the agencies and state enterprises under the MDE for the first time since it formally replaced the Information and Communications Technology Ministry last week.
The MDE has a Bt7.76-billion budget for the next fiscal year, which is 50 per cent more than the ICT Ministry was allocated last year.
It does not include Bt15 billion for launching the rural fixed broadband service for 30,000 villages and cable networks for the Asean digital hub project. TOT and CAT Telecom are expected to be awarded the contract to operate these projects soon.
Most of the budget, Bt3 billion, will be allocated to the permanent secretary's office to implement the transition from the ICT Ministry to the MDE.
The ministry was set up as part of the government's "Thailand 4.0" policy.
All agencies under the ICT Ministry except one have already been transferred to the MDE.