One of the gateways is owned and run by CAT Telecom Pcl. In the early days of internet, the then-Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) was a government monopoly that handled almost all long-distance telephone calls and, therefore, the commercial side of the internet. As the internet evolved, chiefly morphing into the worldwide web, so did Thai communications. CAT became a company and lost its monopoly status.
The government plans to revert to the days of the early 1990s by returning to CAT Telecom the monopoly status it once held. This is the model established in 1954, remembered very unfondly by older people as the service was unreliable, unnecessarily expensive, corrupt and always behind the technology curve.
Thailand has a number of serious internet problems that go far beyond the glacial upgrades to 3G and 4G services by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC). The country is well-known for network insecurity; criminal hackers and spammers can easily compromise the system while hiding their tracks.
Internet speeds have long lagged too. Network expansion must proceed quickly to meet the coming requirements of 4G data systems, a magnitude faster than 3G. The current ICT minister Uttama Savanayana aims to make Thailand a dream zone for data operations vital to any type of digital economy. Based on its past performance, CAT Telecom cannot handle such demands.