The government has established CAT Telecom Plc as a temporary national data centre for the first two years of a project to develop a permanent one.
As a state agency, CAT has been allowed by the government to expand its data centres and provide services to all state agencies, Information and Communication Technology Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa said.
The government has ordered other state agencies to stop developing data centres, which now number 112, to create a single national centre to serve the digital economy.
Mr Pornchai said CAT had a core competency in providing reliable data centre services to state agencies and private companies.
CAT has seven data centres in different provinces with a combined 1,000 racks hosting servers.
Its services include co-location, temporary offices, high-speed internet, disaster recovery and managed security.
Mr Pornchai said the government was on the verge of creating a national data centre to eliminate unnecessary investment of 8 billion baht a year while reducing costs of maintenance and human resources.
The project is expected to significantly lift the competitiveness of Thailand's IT infrastructure.
It will create a national broadband access service and affordable internet gateways.
Mr Pornchai said the private sector would invest in the project, which required 30-40 billion baht and would have 80,000 racks hosting servers.
"The state expects to finish the selection process by year-end, with operation of the data centre set to begin in 2017," he said.
CAT can participate in bidding for the national data centre.
Up to 20 local and global IT companies have expressed an interest in investing in the project.
CAT yesterday opened its new data centre in Nonthaburi province as part of a national effort to expand the telecommunications infrastructure. The 500-million-baht facility is equipped with 1,000 racks of servers.
Chaiyut Santananukarn, a senior executive vice-president of CAT, said the centre would accommodate increasing demand for data storage and help to promote Thailand as a digital hub in Asean.