The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), and National Telecom (NT) have agreed to leverage NT’s underground cable conduits to support government efforts to move telecom cables underground and beautify the capital’s landscape.
BMA officials said the first task will be to move telecom cables through NT’s underground conduits on Yaowarat Road, starting in February. The BMA, which has authority over all of Bangkok’s sidewalks, has also agreed to allow NT to install risers to connect the underground conduits with buildings, as well as fiber-optic patch panels.
The resolution requires telecom and broadcast operators to move their cables underground and pay NT a rental fee.
According to Sutisak Tantayotin, Deputy Secretary-General of the NBTC, NT is expected to facilitate the task as the company owns underground conduits spanning more than 3,000 kilometers in Bangkok. He added that the use of NT’s conduits would expedite bringing overhead cables underground and reduce the subsidy for construction costs of new conduits shouldered by the NBTC.