A brief history of ICT in Thailand

A former director of Nectec and NITC secretary-general looks back at four decades of computerization

STORY BY HUGH THAWEESAK KOANANTAKOOL

When Tony Waltham asked me to write about the development of IT in Thailand for the 20th anniversary of the Database section of the Bangkok Post, I thought that this is not an easy job. It reminds me of William Blake's poem:

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour

We will look back to see what were the major milestones of IT development in Thailand, when and who were the key players in those events. We will see this "eternity" in small sections.

Where are we now?

Thailand has never been late in adopting new technologies. In 1968, we adopted the German PAL colour television three years before the introduction of colour TV broadcasts in the UK. Today, Thailand has all kinds of mobile phone standards: GSM, CDMA, PHS. In addition, cell phone operators have already introduced "2.5G" services (GPRS, EDGE, CDMA 1X EV-DO), meaning that you can use the phone to use Internet faster, as a stop gap before moving to the third-generation (3G) mobile services.

There are plans to introduce 3G services, but that depends a lot on the licensing scheme to be announced by the telecommunications regulator, the NTC (National Telecommunications Commission).

We've never been early enough in regulating for the good standards for telecommunications and broadcasting.

On the computer side of ICT, the story is a bit different from the television and the telephone. In making the computer able to handle the Thai language, we require local national standards and resources. This is certainly slower than adopting TV and telephone because television and telephones are the same for every language - computers aren't. Computers must be "localised" into the local language before you can write and read in that language. We can see that using the Thai-language on computers is quite easy and straight-forward. To come this far, it is worth taking a look at the story, which covers over four decades of computerization in Thailand.

The Thai language and computers

The Hercules graphic card

In 1967, we had only a few computers in Thailand. They were very expensive, large and could handle the English language using only capital letters. To make the computer work in Thai, we had to spend millions of baht for mainframe computer companies to customise their programs and printers to handle the Thai language.

By the year 1972, there were at least four big computer companies (IBM, Univac, Control Data and Wang) that sold computers with basic Thai-language input and printing. We started to see some rudimentary implementation of Thai display terminals during the years 1976 to 1979. The terminals displayed only 8 lines of Thai text per screen.

Around 1979, I was working on a version of Thai graphics display on a Z-80 home-brew machine using the CP/M operating system and it was successful. I used that machine, together with a home-adapted Selectric typewriter, to edit and print my PhD thesis in the UK.

When I came back to Thailand in 1980, I met Asst Prof Yuen Poovorawan of Kasetsart University to learn that he and his team had been active in developing important software for use with microcomputers in Thailand since 1978. That was well before the popularity of the Apple II and the IBM PC.

Microcomputer graphics and simple electronics design came into the hands of researchers and developers. In 1982, Van Suwannukul, a Thai friend who was studying in the USA under the King's scholarship, developed the "Hercules Graphic Card" (HGC) for the IBM PC. It was a low-cost implementation of the display adapter that handles both text (80 columns by 25 lines) and monochrome graphics (720 x 384 pixels).

The display card was an overnight success in the world market. A year later, a Thai engineer named Pratheep added some electronic circuits on the HGC to create the world's first 25-line Thai display. In 1984, several Thai display cards came into the market and this marked the first time in Thailand we could enjoy a full-screen Thai display.

The Thai computer market was vibrant in 1984. More than 20 kinds of Thai language implementations were available on microcomputers: CP/M, DOS-86, MS-DOS (IBM-PC and compatibles) and Apple II computers. A number of people from the academia, including myself, Asst Prof Yuen, representatives from computer companies including IBM Thailand approached the Thai government for one standard code of Thai character set. We managed to convince the TISI (Thai Industrial Standards Institute) to set up a technical committee on IT (TC536) to develop the standard. In 1986, the first standard computer code for the Thai character set was announced in the Royal Gazette as the TIS 620-2529 standard. The number 2529 is the year 1986 expressed in Buddhist Era.

There were many other key persons who took part in Thai IT standards development. Dr Udom Warotesikhadit, Dr Vichit Lorjirachoonhakul, and Dr Kanchit Malaivongs chaired the TC 536 in succession.

TC536 members included Dr Suriyan Tisyathikom, Mr Chamnong Thongprasert, and Mr Boonklee Plangsiri and the committee issued several standards covering many aspects of Thai language processing, such as the code translation for Telex, standard keyboard layout, and a recommendation on Thai Combined Character Codes and Symbols for Line Graphics for Dot-Matrix Printers. I chaired one subcommittee of TISI/TC-536 on the development of the Thai input/output standard. The standard was published in 1998 as TISI 1566-2541.

Through those standards, the people behind the scenes such as TC-536 eliminated all known headaches for computer users in Thailand. Subsequently, Trin Tantsetthi helped TISI to register TIS-620 with key international agencies such as ECMA and Unicode/ISO 10646. The process was a crucial step to make sure that all subsequent implementations of MS Windows and the Macintosh OS could accommodate a Thai standard character set and input/output method consistently.

This interesting story is documented in Trin's article "Annotated Reference to the Thai Language Implementations on the Internet". (http://www.inet.co.th/cyberclub/trin/thairef)

The Internet and Thailand

Internet statisticcs in Thailand collected by Truehits web site from January 2003 to October 2006. From top down: the operating system, the search engine usage and what kind of web sites were mostly vieved.

I briefly encountered many operators of BBSs (bulletin board systems) in 1979. I remember Alan Dawson, Woody Khoman, Botter Reeves, Craig Emmott and Tony Waltham. Those were the experts in Thailand who networked many BBSs together and organised a lively monthly meeting to reinforce their regular electronic communications. I also met Wuthipong Techadamrongsin (from Prince of Songkla University), whose computer centre established a regular Unix email connection with Melbourne University, under the support of the Australian International Development Programme. I considered this connection as the first daily email exchange service for Thailand.

In December 1991, a very important meeting and a training course took place in the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The event was organised by Dr Kanchana Kanchanasut, the "mother of the Internet" in Thailand. Dr Kanchana has administered the .th domain since the beginning. The event was important in many ways: first, this was the first course about Unix computer networking; secondly, it dealt with the formation of an email working group in Thailand; and thirdly, the group united well and could raise research funding from Nectec plus some in-kind donations from IBM, DEC and HP. Robert Elz, from Melbourne University, came to give a lecture at AIT at that event.

The amazing thing about creating the Internet in Thailand was the degree of interaction and cooperation among the members of the working group, which was called "nwg.nectec.or.th", or the Nectec Email Working Group. That name became the first mail server for all of us.

Internet email and Usenet newsgroups were used extensively since the launch of ThaiSarn in April 1992. ThaiSarn stands for the Thai Social/Scientific, Academic and Research Network. At that time, I was using the fastest modem, 14,400 bps, to serve as the country's gateway to the Internet at Thammasat University, during the time of the May 1992 coup. Kamol Hengkiatisak shared Bangkok Post reports with the soc.culture.thai newsgroup to let the whole world read the most up-to-date news reports about the event.

The first Internet connection in Thailand was at the Centre of Academic Resources at Chulalongkorn University. Led by Dr Yunyong Teng-amnuay and Dr Charumatr Pinthong, the first 9,600 bps leased line to UUNET in Virginia in the US was up and running in June 1992. A few months later, Nectec received funding to run the first 64kbps international link. Both Chula and Nectec upgraded the line speeds many times after this.

By 1994, the full-time Internet in Thailand had reached 27 sites all over the country, with 1,200 registered hosts accessible by the Net. The first WWW, FTP, News and Gopher servers were set up in Thailand, mostly by Trin Tantsetthi as a dedicated volunteer for ThaiSarn.

The success of this growth was attributed to the leadership of then Nectec director Prof Dr Pairash Thajchayapong, and the relentless contribution of Nectec researchers such as Morragot Kulathamyothin, Passakon Pathombutr, Chalermpol Charnsripinyo and their team members. For full information, about this, please refer to http://www.nectec.or.th/bureaux/nectec/ThaiSarn.book.

It was exciting to be involved in the ever-growing Internet since its conception. I was inspired enough to move on from Thammasat University to Nectec to set up ThaiSarn. In March 1995, the very first commercial Internet service provider was established as the Internet Thailand Service Centre, a commercial joint venture among NSTDA, CAT and TOT. Only a few months later, the second ISP was established: KSC Comnet, led by Prof Dr Srisakdi Charmonman and Dr Kanokwan Wongwattanasin. A year later, many more ISPs were in service.

The ThaiSarn Network then refocussed into a high-speed research network. The first 2Mbps link between ThaiSarn and NACSIS of Japan was launched in October 1995. ThaiSarn later supported the Kanchanapisek Network and SchoolNet Thailand. Both projects were aimed at bridging the digital divide (even before the term came into existence). We followed guidance from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to make sure that information and knowledge could be created, verified, shared on the Net and improved.

The Kanchanapisek network was the first of its kind to allow free nationwide access to information without even the cost of a local phone call to the modem bank. The SchoolNet Thailand project later modified the free network concept into a high-capacity nationwide school network. SchoolNet supported up to 1,500 secondary schools in Thailand through the close collaboration among Nectec, CAT, TOT and the Ministry of Education. Over 150 local volunteers were involved in the nationwide support for schools, all without any charges.

How big is the Internet in Thailand and are we losing our edge against our neighbours?

Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore started the Internet at about the same time. However, the speed of development was different. Many investors in Thailand often blamed the high cost of leased circuits for the ISPs to connect to the international Internet. When we looked at the official statistics of APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre), the central body for allocating the IP numbers to each country in the region, we found that Thailand is ranked number 11 by the size of the IP numbers in use.

Nectec has been tracking all Internet communications links in Thailand (domestic and international connectivities) since 1992. The number of Internet users has been estimated by Nectec and later assisted by the National Statistical Office through its household surveys in 2003-2005. My current estimate of the Internet users in 2007 is about 13.15 million users (see http://www.nectec.or.th/internet).

Some nostalgic remarks: Siam Commercial Bank was first to become a corporate Internet node in Thailand (March 1995). The first online election report was carried out by the Bangkok Post (June 1995), and the first big Internet usage event was for the Asia-Europe Meeting (March 1996), where CAT, TOT and Internet Thailand Company (INET) jointly supported a 4.5Mbps Internet link for participants and the international press through the largest Internet cafe service at the Queen Sirikit Conference Centre

Content is the key

The first killer application for IT users in Thailand was the Thai word processor developed by Kasetsart University (Thai Easy Writer for CP/M machine) and Chulalongkorn University (CU-Writer, or CW, for the IBM PC with HGC).

According to Dr Wanchai Rivepiboon, CW version 1.1 was first released to the public in April 1989. It was a tremendous success because of the demands for quality printing of Thai documents. The Faculty of Engineering of Chulalongkorn University continued to support and improve the program for about five years before commercial word processing software running on the Windows platform took over in 1994.

The first web server of Thailand, http://www.nectec.or.th, provided comprehensive information about Thailand in the English language under the title "Thailand the Big Picture" between 1993 and 2002. Today, the three most popular content providers in Thailand are pantip.com, sanook.com and manager.co.th.

The statistics relating to the web site ratings were provided by http://truehits.net. Truehits keeps track of the browsing activities to its members' 9,400 web sites. Truehits serves more than 70 million user clicks per day. The results from truehits are amazingly clear: a third party web statistics provider at low cost to all members.

Truehits also gave us the information about the most popular search terms in Thailand, and the popularity of search engines. To my disappointment, the Truehits report found that the most popular terms relate to games, horoscopes, music and jobs. The seasonal words are related to the current affairs of that time, for example: Tsunami, Anna, Dae Jang Kum, Royal Floral Show, Mother's Day, Loy Kratong. It seems that most people are not doing any serious work on the Internet. Anna is the name of a TV star whose naked photos and video were being distributed on the net.

How about the "market share" among the Thai web sites? The majority of Internet users in Thailand are visiting entertainment and game web sites (50% of all clicks). About 20% are browsing the web for news, business and getting services from the Internet. Government and education content are scoring at about 3.4% (both not more than 1.75%). The indicators tell us that Thailand needs to develop e-government and online learning software and content seriously.

E-commerce in Thailand

Six IT laws were planned by the NITC in the year 1997, with two draft laws being enacted as one law, the Electronic Transactions Act of B.E.2544 (2001). The ETA2544 recognises the legal status of data messages by treating them as functionally equivalent of writing or evidence in writing, to promote the reliability of electronic transactions.

Through the ETA2544, the Electronic Transactions Commission was established to facilitate and regulate the use of e-transactions. A number of Royal Decrees have been planned, and they are emerging. These include the provisions of sub-laws to facilitate the standard practice for government electronic transactions, IT security, privacy, and e-payment handling.

Other IT laws were related to the provision of the National Information Infrastructure (NII), data protection, computer misuse and electronic funds transfer. The laws have been completely drafted, with the computer misuse law being considered by a special commission for the National Legislative Assembly.

One key enabler for e-transactions and paperless transactions was the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). A number of e-Certificate providers have been set up, and the e-Transactions Commission also laid down the root CA (certification authority) structure to handle the interoperability of all CAs. The Thailand PKI Forum was set up in 2005 to coordinate the unity of all PKI services in the country.

In 2006, the e-Transactions Commission issued the Information Security Standard for Thailand, based on ISO/IEC 17799 and ISO/IEC 27001. The document was widely distributed and voluntarily adopted by a number of organisations. It is anticipated that the Bank of Thailand and the Security Exchange Commission will adopt the standard and enforce the compliance.

Successful e-commerce sites in Thailand are http://www.thaigems.com, http://www.thaisecondhand.com, http://www.tohome.com, http://www.pramool.com.

Software industry - gaining speed

Software Park Thailand was established in 1997. Its mandate is to develop and strengthen the software industry in Thailand. The Software Park provided training and certification on software quality standard using the CMM and CMMi practice from Carnegie Mellon University. It also facilitates office incubation space for start up companies.

A number of new Software Parks are being planned and developed in the provinces of Thailand. Dr Rom Hirunpruk was appointed the first director of Software Park Thailand.

After the Ministry of ICT was established in 2002, it established the Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA). Mr Manoo Ordeedolchest was appointed as the first SIPA director. SIPA supports the software industry through exhibitions and trade shows, funding for government-led development projects and software contests. It's focus areas are enterprise software architecture, animation/multimedia, and embedded software.

Open source software significantly has gained some interest from large enterprises and universities in the past five years. About 60% of all web servers in Thailand are running on Apache. The most popular OSS applications for the desktop in daily use in Thailand are Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.Org and Freemind.

Large local software companies worth mentioning are Reuters (which incorporated Biznews), SoftSquare Group and Progress Software. For the emerging embedded software activities, the Thai Embedded System Association (TESA) was set up to establish the resource pool of embedded system experts to solve large problems from major manufacturing companies. TESA was founded and chaired by Dr.Pansak Siriruchtapong, who is currently the director of Nectec.

Bad News: spam email is on the rise

Modern computers are both convenient and fast. But they are constantly attacked by malicious computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses. In the past two years, spam email has grown significantly. Since January 2006, virus-infected email messages seemed fewer, but spam mail now accounts for more than four times the number of clean messages every day.

There is harmful content on the Internet, including pornographic video and chat rooms. These web sites attract young people. Often the media (TV and newspapers) become the main source of propagating the news about certain harmful content to the Internet users. As we have observed, "search keyword" statistics have often surged based on the names that have appeared in the newspapers. It is a hard decision for the authorities to control access to those web sites.

It is anticipated that the forthcoming Computer Misuse Act will help the authorities curb unlawful activities in Thailand. However, it is hard to block harmful content from abroad (except for child pornography, which is illegal in most countries).

Good News: HDD Champion, RFID and Broadband

Thailand became the world's largest exporter of hard disk drives in 2005 as the industry generated more than US$263 billion in exports. That's 9.4% of total Thai exports and 42% of the worldwide HDD market. HDD production volume has more than doubled from 54.1 million units in 2003 to 119.8 million units in 2006. More than 100,000 workers are currently employed by the industry. The Thai government has initiated several support programs to strengthen the industry. In 2006, 14 universities were funded by Nectec to run research projects that respond to the needs of the industry.

RFID has also seen a strong interest from Nectec, electronics, software and manufacturing industries, logistics firms and supply chains. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has approved Nectec's recommendation in December 2005 to use the RF spectrum in the band 920-924 MHz for RFID, in addition to LF and HF which were approved by MICT in 2004.

Broadband users in 2005 were about 570,000 subscribers. According to Nectec's survey that year, about 39% of the respondents were using broadband connections. This translates to about 3.18 million broadband users, or about five users per subscription of ADSL.

Finally, the size of the ICT market in Thailand in 2005 was approximately US$11.09 billion, with the majority of the market being telecommunications. The software market was valued at $1.09 billion.

The future

The telecommunications market is at the stage of its highest growth, with plenty of room at the top. The IT market is still pretty small compared to the big picture of the country. There are limits to growth of the IT market due to the laggardly growth of the Thai software industry. Internet users' tastes will need to shift from an entertainment-bias towards something more productive. The lowest "click" market share for government and education web sites (less than 3.5%) leaves a lot of homework for those responsible for e-government and e-education. Computer vulnerabilities such as attacks by viruses, worms, spam and hackers will create a huge computer security services market.

All of the identified shortcomings are sufficient for future planning and market opportunities for the Thai electronics and software industries. Foreign software solution providers are welcome to invest and operate in Thailand.

The public policies relating to the development of e-Government, useful local content and economic risk protection from computer attacks are the top priorities. All remaining drafted laws should be submitted to the NLA for legislation. Perhaps, it's time to take a road that is different from what Thailand has taken in the past five years to get different results:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference
'The road less travelled,' by Robert Frost

About the Author: Hugh Thaweesak Koanantakool is an electrical engineer by training. His specialisation is digital communications, coding and Thai language processing. He headed Nectec for eight years and ran the NITC secretariat office for six years.