Cabinet will look at proposal to help with home internet

Cabinet today will look at a proposal to help people working from home with 10 Gb free internet for their smartphones, along with other subsidies.

The Thai National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission will ask for cabinet approval providing mobile users with 10 free gigabytes of data usage per subscriber, per month up to June 30.

The NBTS say they recognise that the current situation will involve many people working from home.

For fixed broadband service, existing household broadband subscribers would be supported in using a higher capacity package without additional charges. But details are lacking on that proposal at the moment.

Secretary-general of the NBTC, Takorn Tantasith, says the proposals follow Sunday’s special meeting between the NBTC and mobile and telecom operators to come up with ways to assist the public during this ‘lockdown’ phase.

The proposed assistance is expected to cost the Thai government 10 billion baht, or around 3.5 billion baht per month up to the end of June.

The NBTS says the 10GB of data usage per mobile subscriber a month could be funded by the first instalment payments from the 5G spectrum licence auction which was held last month.

“If the proposal is approved by the cabinet, the NBTC will hold a meeting with telecom operators to discuss the assistance.”

SOURCE: Bangkok Post