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Thailand TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Two major entities were responsible for the Thai
telecommunication and postal services under the supervision of
the Ministry of Communications. The Telephone Organization of
Thailand (TOT) was responsible for the domestic telephone
services; for international telephone services to several
neighboring countries, such as Malaysia and Laos; and for leasing
circuits for domestic point-to-point transmission of voices,
telegraph, radio, and television. The Communication Authority of
Thailand (CAT) was responsible for postal service, international
telephone service to countries not served by TOT, all telegraph
and telex services international lease circuits, domestic radiotelephone links to some isolated areas, and telephotographic and
facsimile services. A committee in the Ministry of Communications
coordinated the services and investment of TOT and CAT, although
the two were state-owned autonomous operations. Numerous
government agencies and large private industrial and commercial
entities operated their own radio-telephone networks.
By the mid-1980s, Thailand had an average density of one
telephone per hundred inhabitants. This density was better than
the average of 0.7 for the developing countries in the East Asia
region, although it was still lower than Malaysia with 3.3, South
Korea with 7.8, Taiwan with 14.6, and Singapore with 26.5. Even
Bangkok, which had the most developed telephone service in the
country, had only a density of 5.4 telephones per 100
inhabitants. Overall, only 25 percent of the population had
access to telephone services. There were about 5,800 local and
long- distance pay (coin box) telephones in the capital city and
750 in provincial towns. About 4,500 pay telephones were to be
added in Bangkok and 1,500 in provincial towns. About 62 percent
of the country's telephone lines were connected to business and
government subscribers and the rest to residential subscribers.
Business lines accounted for 83 percent of total calls and
revenues.
As a rapidly modernizing nation, Thailand in the late 1980s
faced many problems related to the growth and expansion of its
economy. The development of its industrial base and the
continuing need for new cultivable land placed increasing
pressure on urban and rural areas alike. However, the abundance
of the country's resources, the adaptability of its workforce,
and the stability of its polity boded well for Thailand's
successful transition to the role of newly industrialized
country.
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Several studies are available on the Thai economy that
furnish background details and analysis of the modern period
since about 1850. Particularly valuable is James C. Ingram's
Economic Change in Thailand, 1850-1970. Further reading
should include Larry Sternstein's Thailand: The Environment of
Modernization and Wolf Donner's The Five Faces of
Thailand.
The period since the late 1960s has been covered in a large
number of journal and magazine articles and papers written on
particular aspects of the economy. The Far Eastern Economic
Review is a particularly valuable source. Issues of the Bank
of Thailand's Monthly Bulletin are also useful. For the
most recent economic coverage, the World Bank's publication of
1986 called Thailand: Growth with Stability--A Challenge for
the Sixth Plan Period is the best reference. (For further
information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of September 1987
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