The saga drags on

       The National Telecommunications Communications (NTC) finally confirmed that a lot of people have a lot of interest in thirdgeneration (3G) yuppiephone service,and not very many of them have kind thoughts about the regulators; about 1,000 people from the phone companies,financial advisers and phone suppliers showed up for what the NTC would be the one and only public hearing on its plans to auction and regulate 3G services;not so fast, said the private business leaders, such as Athueck Asvanont, who is chairman of vice at True Move ; he explained to the NTC that the constitution (Article 84-1) bans the government from competing with telecoms firms,and what are AIS (of Shingapore) and DTAC (of Norway) but foreign state companies?; then the lawyers took a crack at the commission, explaining that it is actually illegal for the NTC to get involved in 3G, because it is a matter for the National Broadcasting Commission, which doesn't exist yet - and any action by the NTC could be overturned by a court decision, sinking 3G even further behind high technology countries like Laos and Cambodia.
       For those who missed it, lawyer Wirot Poonsuwan wrote an excellent review in a certain daily newspaper of the dogand-pony show known as 3G licensing and operation; it is online at www.bangkokpost.com/business/telecom/24707.
       The Energy Ministry announced field tests on biodiesel B10 fuel will soon begin, supervised by PTT and the ministry's own Department of Energy Business; if everything goes as expected,the new fuel could win approval as soon as early next year; B10 is 90 percent regular diesel and 10 percent methyl ester, produced from palm.
       Your CAT Telecom is no longer a long-distance telephone company, it is an "integrated wireless services provider"; so says your CAT president Jirayuth Roongsrithong, who figures the state enterprise can boost income by spreading out a bit here, tweaking a bit there, and reap the benefits of broadband Internet; but what CAT really is waiting for is issuing licences for thirdgeneration phones, because broadband services will really grow, then; Mr Jirayuth predicted CAT will gross 52 billion baht by the end of the year, even though international call income is certain to slide again.
       The Metropolitan Electricity Authority slogged along on its lonely quest to bury power lines in Bangkok; all it has to do is to coordinate with City Hall, telecoms firms and mass-transit operators; MEA governor Pornthape Thunyapongchai noted the "poor city development plan" of previous Bangkok administrators; for now, the only underground power lines are around the Grand Palace and along Silom Road;the MEA is trying to herd the cats into a 3-billion-baht plan to bury wires along Phaya Thai, Sukhumvit and Phahon Yothin, and their sois.
       Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp said flatly it would capture a quarter of the Thai smartphone market volume and value - by New Year's Eve; country manager Nattawat Woranopakul figured it would be easy to sell about 100,000 of the phones Thais will buy this year, and grow HTC revenues by 20 percent to 1.8 billion baht; overall,he expects Thais to buy 10 million yuppiephones for 27.9 billion baht - a huge drop from the record 47.3 billion baht in 2006; part of the reason for the drop is falling phone prices, with the cost of smartphones this year alone dropping from a 2008 average of 16,000 to 12,000 baht.
       The company formerly known as Philips of Holland, now called China Electronics Corp (CEC) of Shenzhen,vowed to make a comeback in the Thailand yuppiephone market and get into the world Top 5 again by 2014; Philip Lee, who handles overseas affairs for CEC subsidiary Shenzhen Sang Fei Con-sumer Communications, predicted confidently he would double sales in Thailand and globally this year, selling six million phones in total; Philips sold the phone business to the Chinese firm in 2007.
       Entertainment giant GMM Grammy signed a deal with Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan to provide Thai and other Asian workers to download music from the Internet trough their phones; managing director Surachai Sensri of GMM International was so devastated by all that homesickness by the 350,000 immigrant workers in Taiwan that he decided to cash in on it with music from the homeland; the exclusive deal allows Grammy to provide a "buffet service"of continuous music for the equivalent of 52 baht a month, and Grammy also expects to get streaming rights to Vietnamese and Philippines music for the service.
       Thailand crunched the numbers on a single production base for the electrical and electronics industry in Southeast Asia - and gave a big smile; eliminating all import tariffs and facilitating trade with the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta)will give a big boost to the Thai industry;Charuek Hengrasmee, president of the Electrical and Electronics Institute, and Katiya Greigarn, chairman of the Electrical, Electronics Industry Club at the Federation of Thai Industries, noted the currently strong position of Thailand in the making of hard drives and electrical appliances - air conditioners,refrigerators and microwaves, say and figured that in international eyes,Thailand will be "the manufacturing centre of the region."

PM puts Grandma on a Hai

       Wearing a brown sarong, dark blue long-sleeved shirt and white flowers in her hair, Hai Khanjantha knew yesterday was her happiest day.
       Grandma Hai was up early in the morning to prepare for her meeting with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who travelled from Bangkok to hand over a compensation cheque for 1.2 million baht to her.
       In return, she gave an unfinished bamboo basket to the prime minister, saying it represented the many problems of the poor still to be addressed by his government.
       "I have waited for this happy moment for 32 years. I will pay off my 400,000 baht debt and spend the rest buying land for my children," she said after receiving the cheque.
       Grandma Hai has 10 children, 60 grandchildren and 25 greatgrandchildren.
       The handover ceremony was held before hundreds of northeastern farmers at a learning centre in Phibun Mangsahan district of this northeastern province.The centre is also the northeastern head office of the Assembly of the Poor.
       A member of the assembly, Mrs Hai is one of the three farmers to whom the cabinet last month approved a grant of 4.9 million baht compensation after they had fought to reclaim their 61-rai submerged paddy fields from construction of the Huay La Ha reservoir at Na Tan village at Phibun Mangsahan district.
       The other two are her late husband,Fong, and her late elder brother-in-law Sua Pankham.
       The reservoir was built when Gen Prem Tinsulanonda was prime minister.The government did not seek her consent or ask how the farmers were likely to be affected. After construction, the land was submerged immediately, which resulted in them being unable to grow rice for nearly three decades.
       Mrs Hai said she and the other farmers had asked many government agencies for help but no one offered a solution.
       "I lost tears to the land battle. It is such a painful memory. I don't want to see other people facing the same problem," she said.
       After being ignored, Grandma Hai dug a hole in the crest of the reservoir to reclaim her submerged land.
       She regained her paddy in 2004 when the Thaksin Shinawatra government intervened and demanded state agencies look into her case.
       They concluded that she had never given her consent for the dam and should be compensated."Even though my family have now been paid, we will not let our brothers and sisters in the Assembly of the Poor fight alone," she said.
       Petch, 36, Mrs Hai's daughter, who received the 1.3 million baht cheque on behalf of her late father, said she fought with her mother to reclaim the land when she was aged only four, and knew just how much her mother had struggled during that difficult time.
       "Our family relied on the paddy as its main source of income but when the paddy fields were inundated we did not know what to do," said Mrs Petch, who quit school at Mathayom 3(Grade 9)because her mother had no money to support her.
       The mother of two children said she intended to put some money aside for the education of her children.
       The prime minister also pledged to help the other 16 farmers affected by construction of the Huay La Ha reservoir.