The Cabinet has approved the extension of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society’s Big Rock program, which aims to improve the quality of life for the public by providing high-speed internet.
Deputy Government Spokesperson Tipanan Sirichana explained that the program aims to connect networks to “Last Mile Access” points across all sectors, while reducing redundancy in telecommunication infrastructure investments.
The Big Rock program is an Open Access Network under the government’s Net Pracharat project. As of the time of this report, it supports some 41,000 ports, with about 3,400 dedicated to schools, 1,600 to local hospitals, 8,500 for public access and the remaining ports designated for “Last Mile” households.
The approval followed a meeting of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society on the matter in December 2022.
The Net Pracharat project aims to expand high-speed internet to all villages in Thailand, providing the same level of connectivity to those in remote areas as in cities.
In the initial phase, the Digital Economy Ministry and TOT Public Company Limited completed the installation of fiber cable networks to 24,700 rural villages, providing them with free Wi-Fi hotspots. In the later phase, around 4.5 million users had registered to access Wi-Fi Net Pracharat, with an increase of 200,000-300,000 new users each month. (NNT)
