Blame game | Bangkok Post: tech

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If you can't say nee sua paa jorake, put it this way: Out of the frying pan into the fire; telecoms firms apart from the state duopoly definitely thought of fleeing the tiger only to meet the crocodile in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on the Thaksin assets; the Court's finding that Shin Corp of Shingapore (and previously Thailand) profited from cabinet decisions during the Thaksin years appeared to have emboldened the government into claiming that your ToT and your CAT Telecom "lost" billions, and a total rewrite of concession and other agreements could be in the offing; that would only take Thai telecoms back into the 20th century, result in high new charges for consumers and make 3G mobile phone service a fantasy instead of a dream; legally, of course, putting a phone in the hands of every Thai has theoretically cost the state-owned firms a lot - except that the state-owned firms were (and are) incapable of meeting the needs of the country at any price; every other telecom firm has certainly profited in the past two decades, but then so have consumers; a return to strict regulations would mean a return to the days when it was illegal to own a modem or a Telex machine, and the only legal way to communicate was to rent equipment from the state.

Executives of Shin Corp of Shingapore and its subsidiaries Advanced Info Service (mobile phones) and Thaicom (satellites) made it clear that if the government tried to take down their ship, they would fight to sink everyone else's boat as well; Advanced Info Service president Wichian Mektrakarn said the company would defend itself vigorously in court as being the matter of "a private shareholder" meaning Thaksin; chief executive Arak Chonlatanon of Thaicom said it will fold its tent and go out of business if the government tries to pin any moral or financial blame on the company, because as Thailand's only satellite service provider, it had done nothing wrong; they got unexpected support from Athueck Asvanund, chairman of vice of True Corp of Thailand; he said the blame for changing concessions can hardly be pinned solely on the private operators, as past contract changes could only be made with state approval.

The best minister of information and communications technology that Thailand has suffered in more than a year donned hip boots and waded into the fray; Ranongruk Suwunchwee appointed a committee to investigate whether Thaksin Shinawatra might have helped Shin Corp while abusing his power as prime minister in the days when her husband was Mr Thaksin's cabinet minister; Pol Col Suchart Wong-anantchai, an inspector general with her ministry, would handle the probe, although she indicated she was convinced that Shin Corp had robbed the state by deducting tax payments from concession payments; former ToT board chairman Supachai Pisitvanich got legal advice, because he feared the state agency would also be blamed in the Thaksin vendetta; and to top it off, Somprasong Boonyachai, executive chairman and acting president of Shin Corp, said the Singapore government's Temasek holding firm might simply dump Shin Corp entirely rather than hold on while a huge brouhaha enriches lawyers and delights the anti-Thaksinites; Mr Somprasong insisted that the Supreme Court case concerned one person, and not any company; that seems to be the developing line of defence up and down the Shin Corp hierarchy.

Stars Microelectronics (Thailand) predicted profits would increase by 40 percent this year to about 374 million baht, after the firm won deals to make chips for smart phone brands worldwide; CEO Polsak Lertputinyo said the company would sell at least 30 percent more integrated circuits (IC) and microelectronic assembly (MMAs) at its Ayutthaya factory, to supply Research in Motion (BlackBerry) of Canada and Sony Ericsson of Japan, effective immediately.

Technology wonks Frost & Sullivan predicted that growth of Asia-Pacific data centres will be at least 14 percent for the next two years; analyst Chengyu Wu expects revenues to rise past $10.68 billion by the end of next year; she described it as "a huge, growing business" and well insulated from the recession because data centres are way cheaper than the real estate and energy costs needed to maintain individual data holding within companies.

A million-person march? No problem for the geeks who flock to the Bangkok International Motor Show, apparently; organising chairman Prachin Eamlumnow insisted he was flat "not worried" by the political problems, and the show expects to sell 40 billion baht of spiffy new vehicles armed with the latest technology between March 26 and April 6; in any case, the show is at Bitec Bang Na, far from the scheduled meeting places of the madding crowds.