Internet in Thailand

This was a reply to a post made in a forum about Internet Filtering in Thailand, I hope it is of use to someone out there. Back in 2001, the then new Prime Minister Thaksin came to power in Thailand. One of the first actions of the new year for the Communications Authority of Thailand(CAT) was enforce their monopoly on international communications. This meant that not only were voice calls subject to their monopoly but also data transmissions and this means the internet.

All of a sudden, all ISP’s were REQUIRED to purchase their internet access from the CAT at a markup. Since all internet access now passed through CAT, internet filtering began. Whenever the Thai Police felt that a website was counter to morals or laws of the Kingdom, they would give the website address to the CAT and the CAT would not allow for connections to be made to it and instead display a police notice.

This kind of filtering was impossible before 2001 because each individual ISP had to be contacted and they had to block the sites, but with only one ISP to deal with, CAT, it is very easy.

That is important to note, there is only 1 International ISP in Thailand, CAT, all others merely resell and repackage CAT access.

Tags: CAT, internet, Thailand