Government targets Thaicom concession

Thailand’s Cabinet has requested the country’s Information and Communications Technology Ministry (MICT) and its Council of State to investigate legal channels for the revocation of Thaicom’s concession to operate satellites, according to local…

Thailand’s Cabinet has requested the country’s Information and Communications Technology Ministry (MICT) and its Council of State to investigate legal channels for the revocation of Thaicom’s concession to operate satellites, according to local reports.

The Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Saugsuban, who is also in charge of security affairs, said that Thaicom’s concession should be cancelled because the company failed to comply with the government’s request that it cease broadcasts of PTV, a channel that supports the anti-government Red Shirt movement that has fought a series of running clashes with the authorities over the past month.

One such clash saw Red Shirt protestors storm Thaicom’s Teleport and DTH Facility to pressure the company into keeping PTV on air.

Thaicom has released a vigorous defence of its actions in response to the reports of concession cancellation.

In a statement to the Thai stock exchange, it laid out a seven point testament detailing its actions on PTV.

The main difficulty Thaicom faced was that PTV broadcasts over resold capacity leased by two of Thaicom’s foreign customers. This means that on April 7 Thaicom did not have the ability to immediately act on MICT’s instruction to block the PTV broadcast.

The company successfully jammed the PTV transmission on one of its C-Band responders, but requests to the foreign customer broadcasting PTV in Ku-band were denied.

After further pressure from the Centre for Resolution of Emergency Situation (CRES) set up to handle the political unrest, Thaicom then took the step of encrypting the PTV signal so that it could not be viewed in Thailand.

Thaicom then issued an ultimatum to the foreign Ku-band customer, which eventually complied and suspended PTV’s uplink service as of April 23.

The statement concluded: “From the facts mentioned above, it is clear that the Company has used its best effort to comply with MICT’s and CRES’s instructions, even though that may endanger the Company’s employees and assets as the demonstrator occupied and held their meetings on the ground of Thaicom satellite stations at both Lad Lum Kaew (LLK) and Kaerai, demanding the broadcast of PTV be continued.

“The company would like to confirm that it has complied with the terms and conditions of the Satellite Concession Agreement, and with MICT’s and CRES’s instructions as far as possible, even though a number of the Company’s customers were affected by the Company’s actions relating to PTV.”

The concession represents the idea that Thailand’s satellites, orbital slots and frequency filings are national assets, and that Thaicom is operating them in the interest of the country while still acting as a private company.

Any withdrawal of the concession would effectively amount to the nationalisation of Thaicom’s satellite fleet, which could have unknown consequences for its foreign customers.

It is possible that the Thai government would seek a new concession holder, but the issue remains highly uncertain as long as Thaicom’s fate is entwined with the turbulent political situation in Thailand.

Bloody clashes between the Red Shirts and security forces have escalated over the past month, leaving at least 27 people dead. The anti-government protestors are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve parliament and call new elections.