Way out of line

       Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced that he expects third generation phone service before New Year's Eve; he then announced why there probably won't be any; in a speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the Magnificent Seven National Telecommunications Commission, Mr Abhisit set out the conflicting criteria he expects to see in Asia's last, most dysfunctional 3G campaign: service before the end of the year after fair bandwidth auctions that favour small Thai telecom operators;on one hand,"3G services can no longer be postponed," he insisted, but on the other, the NTC must bias bidding to favour a more competitive structure;the English translation of this speech:DTAC of Norway and AIS of Shingapore have way too much market power now and 3G contracts must show that.
       Information and Communications Technology Minister explained that Mr Abhisit was way out of line in calling for 3G phone service in Thailand by the end of the year; the highly dynamic Ranongruk Suwunchwee said that the auction for 3G service should be postponed indefinitely, but certainly until at least 2010; the minister patiently diagrammed the truth for Mr Abhisit,showing that any auction before next year would favour "foreign players"(translation:DTAC of Norway and AIS of Shingapore) while dealing setbacks to the telecoms duopoly of your TOT and your CAT Telecom ; after hearing the minister's clear (as always) and expert (as always) statement, Mr Abhisit said,"I have sympathy for the NTC in carrying out this complicated work,"and went back to his office.
       Speaking of foreign companies, the Japanese Internet firm Rakuten bought a controlling 67 percent of Thailand's largest e-commerce portal; the online shopping service TARAD.Com , which claims to have 2 million users buying 1.4 million items from 160,000 merchants, will be directly controlled by three senior Rakuten executives to be flown in for the jobs; it's all about the scale - Rakuten.co.jp has 60 million users able to buy 40 million products from 30,000 merchants; executives of Tarad.com and Rakuten were so excited they forgot to mention the sale price.
       The cabinet took a quick look, guffawed and quickly waved away a dis-tasteful proposal by the Commerce Minister to fine and arrest people who buy pirated songs, movies, software, etc;Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva spoke up and said it was a dreadful idea, probably illegal and fraught with the danger that most arrested people would simply sue the police back; Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai and deputy Alongkorn Ponlaboot apparently got caught up in the spirit of taking draconian action to stamp out piracy; but the bill will probably come back to cabinet with one key point still in it: punishment for store or mall owners who allow their premises to be used to sell pirated or counterfeit goods, which seems an equally iffy accusation.
       Finally, you can buy a Kindle e-book reader for a mere $279 that will download all the k3w1 books and newspapers (and charge your credit card) from Amazon.com that works (or soon will,says Amazon) on the Edge/GPRS networks in Thailand -9,600 baht in real money.
       Sixty four percent of Thais favour nuclear energy but 66 percent insist they be in other Thais' provinces; that was the result of a poll on nuclear energy conducted on behalf of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand ; Egat has hired a consulting firm to conduct studies on plants currently planned to be opened starting in 2020; deputy governor Somboon Arayasakul lauded alternative energy projects throughout the country but said there was no way they would supply enough electricity;Egat has carefully refrained from specifying any province or site as its preferred spot for the first plant.
       Marine scientist Suchana Chavanich left on a four-month trip to study the impact of climate change in Antarctica;the 37-year-old Chulalongkorn University lecturer was chosen as part of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition.