Intense competition in Thailand’s fixed and wireless high-speed broadband internet markets is boosting the demand for computer networking equipment this year as working from home via mobile devices becomes increasingly popular, says a US-based computer networking and mobile accessories firm.
Computer networking equipment such as routers and switches are used to transmit data across communications networks.
Amnat Meemongkol, sales manager at Linksys Thailand, said the value of the local networking equipment market is expected to reach US$200 million this year, fuelled mainly by switching and routing gear.
A number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and retail users are increasing their networking equipment capacity from 10-100 Mbps to 1 Gbps in order to accommodate faster data transfer speed for fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-building services.
Mr Amnat said the proliferation of smart wireless devices and digital televisions is pushing up consumers’ demand to upgrade to high-speed broadband internet service to support internet connection sharing from multiple devices at home.
SMEs also need to build network infrastructure to support the increased popularity of mobile working and greater usage of cloud-based applications for business continuity.
The emergence of cloud computing as a key component in business continuity
is one of the most significant trends in business continuity planning and practices.
Mr Amnat said Linksys this year will re-enter the SME segment with the number of employees less than 99 after the company completed its internal restructuring programme.
Belkin acquired Linksys from Cisco System Inc in March 2013.
Linksys is one of the most popular brands in wireless router technology. Although they started out as an individual company in 1995, they were acquired by Cisco in 2003.
"We plan to offer products priced 10-15% lower than our US rivals for the SME market," he said.
About 100,000 SMEs in Thailand are expected to invest in IT networking infrastructure this year.
"We plan to have at least 10,000 SMEs, exporters in particular," said Mr Amnat.