Ucom sells World Net Internet to Singaporean group

United Communication Industry Plc, one of the country’s largest telecommunication firms, has sold its majority holding in World Net and Service Co. to Pacific Internet (Pacnet). The name of the company will most likely be changed to ‘IT Star’ after the name of a service by the Singaporean group. Ucom once controlled 65% of World Net holdings.

Sources from the Communications Authority of Thailand, which owns 35% of every Internet service providing company, said a number of small ISPs have been looking for fresh cash to fund expansion, or service improvement projects in order to compete. For instance, Dataline Thai Co. is close to concluding an investment deal with Data General to gain financial and technological strength, said the sources. Dataline Thai, a Datamat subsidiary, said it needs fresh capital to expand its bandwidth.

Smart Cyber Net, Internet KSC, and CS Internet, however, remain stable. Fareast Internet said it has been in negotiations with 3-4 prospective foreign investors for possible cooperation.

Web site host disconnects Thai sites over sofrware violation concerns

Autoway Technology Hosting has permanently disconnected ‘SiamHack’, a Thai-owned Web site, after finding that it had links to other Web sites which offered downloads of illegal software. Industry sources said the disconnection took place after a series of warnings from the US-based host. The host has, however, returned parts of the 18,000 baht annual ‘rental fees’ to the Thai Web master.

According to Kittipat Chaovalitthavil, general manager of Altra Highway Co., which represents ATH in Thailand, said SiamHack was the first case to be closed due to rules and regulations by the US host.

‘ThaiWare’, another Thai-owned Web site was also closed recently after it was found to link to other sites which consist of hacking files, Kittipat said. ThaiWare should re-open soon after corrections are made.

ATH’s policy states that any illegal links must be deleted or the site faces disconnection. ThaiWare’s Web master, a group of secondary school kids, said they were not aware that some links had led to illegal downloads.

The Web master of SiamHack said he would not bow to pressure from the US host, and was looking for a new international host.

Web page millionaire: The man who followed Jerry Yang

When Chatchai Khunpitilak started out years ago he could not have known that what he created for pleasure would have gone so far. Now his Web site ‘SiamPage’ earns 3.5 million baht a month in advertising revenue. Chatchai said he had closely followed the steps of Jerry Yang, creator and owner of Excite.com, but would not go so far as to leave his doctorate program, as did his Stanford senior.

Chatchai said he constructed a Web site on the Internet in the first year he enrolled in computer science courses at Stanford, just to create a tool to page to his younger brothers back home. The Web site is now one of the top five Thai-owned sites rated by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), with about 35,000 hits per day.

A former Thai student in the US who spent his post-graduate years working at Silicon Graphic Inc., Chatchai said a number of his Stanford colleagues had become billionaires while studying there - from working on the Net.

SDH project: Producers claim bidding information leaked by TOT officials

Producers of equipment to supply to the telephone expansion project by the Telephone Organization of Thailand have claimed that essential information on technical issues of the project had been leaked to their competitors, and some TOT officials participating in briefings are suspected.

Such a leak would enable preferred producers to calculate the cost to get nearest to the lowest market price and give them a decided edge in bidding.

This is another round of scandals concerning the telephone network expansion project, formerly known as the ‘SDH’ (synchronous digital hierarchy) installation project. The scandalous project was once canceled by the cabinet.

TOT has been accused of bringing some non-duty officials, who actually had no business in bidding, into the briefing room.

The TOT committee is yet to find the best proposals on the technical side of the project, and on the SDH equipment. 10 companies submitted proposals on optical fiber cables on January 10, but insiders expect only Alcatel, Siemens, NEC, and Fujitsu will be left as candidates for the equipment supplier.

TMB set to renew capital increase campaign

Thai Military Bank is prepared for a new round of capital increase campaigns. TMB recently switched to Solomon Smith-Barney, appointing it as its new financial advisor to replace Credit Suisse First Boston. The Hong Kong-based CSFB last year halted TMB sell off attempts on the grounds that regional and international currencies were fluctuating too much.

Banking sources said TMB is likely to start a new sales campaign as early as February after announcing its 1999 annual report. The bank plans to raise 30 billion baht in a capital increase program to restructure its huge debt and non-performing loan portfolios. Half of its new capital increase shares would be sold to the ministry of finance while the rest would be allocated to both local and foreign investors by private replacement.

TMB’s situation is getting better, as its share price recently rose to 15-16 baht each, compared to 11-12 baht before it canceled its campaign last year. TMB is set to work out restructuring programs to be proposed by a number of foreign consulting firms. In case capital increase share sales fail to work, TMB might switch to issuing super CAPs.

THAI plans to sell part of its Boeing 777 fleet

Thailand’s national flag carrier, Thai Airways Intentional, plans to sell some of its Boeing 777 planes, as the airline is to focus more on long-range flying service between Asia and Europe in the coming years. The medium-range plane would no longer be valid, according to Mahidol Chantarangkura, chairman of THAI board, in a recent interview.

Deployment of the new large body, long-range planes would take place over the next two to three years, between 2001 and 2002, to support the new marketing plan, Dr Mahidol said. THAI has purchased a total of 21 new passenger planes over the past several years; almost all were medium-range, which would not be suitable to their new marketing strategy, he said.

Boeing 777s must make two stops from Asia to Europe, as their flying range is only 8 hours.

Buying a new fleet of planes would fit into THAI development plans over the next 5 years, which would need up to 10 billion baht in budget funds to support. There is one Boeing 777, one Boeing 747, and one Airbus, to be delivered to THAI.

BOI Fair opening times re-adjusted to avoid traffic chaos

The Office of the Board of Investment has re-adjusted the opening times of the BOI Fair 2000 to between 11:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. after consulting with Bangkok Metropolitan Transport Organization. The move was made to try and avoid traffic jams, as hundreds of thousands are expected to flock into the vast Muang Thong Thani Sport Complex each day between February 3 and February 21.

Chakchai Panichpat, operations chairman of the fair, said the time was changed from the 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. times since they believe 10 o’clock would be still too early for traffic congestion to ease.

More than 800 companies, corporations, and businesses have confirmed participation in the fair, about 20% more than expected, Chakchai said. Exhibition pavilions have been expanded as demand rose over the past few weeks. Some 25 football fields would be needed to lay out all the pavilions and exhibition booths. Several companies have been disappointed as there was not any more exhibiting space available.

Copyright 1999 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
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Updated by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.