National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT), Thailand’s largest international telecommunications network provider, has developed infrastructure to support demand for domestic and international connectivity. The company offers advanced technology and delivers digital services to serve all business needs, while expanding network coverage across countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This strategy is aimed at serving partners with fast and reliable routes, driving the region to become a global digital hub.
NT benefits from its formation through the merger between TOT and CAT Telecom in early 2021, enabling the company to consolidate all of its infrastructure and network assets. This helps it to deliver highly reliable services to customers, with NT having a variety of strengths to support them.
Seven strengths of NT supporting national and international expansion
NT has seven key strengths when it comes to increasing its service capabilities to meet all customer requirements. These comprise: 1) over 25,000 telecommunications towers nationwide, covering all areas; 2)nine international submarine cable systems that connect to every continent; 3) five main frequency bands totalling 540 MHz; 4) underground ducts with a total distance of 4,600km; 5) 4 million core kilometres of fibre-optic cables; 6) international phone calls available across the world; and 7) 13 data centres across Thailand enhanced by safe storage via NT’s cloud and cybersecurity services.
International data communications connecting Thai businesses to the world
To streamline international data communications and support the expansion of businesses to neighbouring and other countries, NT has developed a telecommunications infrastructure through NT International Network Solutions. This consists of an international data communications service with submarine cable systems connecting Thailand to destinations around the world. The service enables the company to become a true ASEAN digital hub providing comprehensive services via both submarine and terrestrial cable systems.
NT's International Private Line service provides secure and reliable high-speed data communications, offering SDH/DWDM technology over efficient fibre-optic cable networks with international standards and quality guaranteed throughout the routes.
NT International Ethernet, meanwhile, is a high-speed data communications service over internet protocol (IP) networks, operating at Layer 2 level in line with MEF international standards.
Another NT service, International MPLS, provides high-speed data communication using multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology. Comprising an advanced Layer 3 offering, the service is geared towards responding to the future needs and changing work patterns of organisations, and supports a variety of IP applications.
Communications around the world via nine submarine routes
NT has more than 10 points of interconnection to neighbouring countries and six submarine cable landing stations – Chalie 1 in Phetchaburi, Chalie 3 in Chonburi, Chalie 4 and Pak Bara CLS in Satun, and Chalie 2 and Songkhla CLS in Songkhla. These are ready to connect the world to multiple submarine cable systems across nine routes – AAE-1, AAG, APG, FLAG, SJC, SMW3, SMW4, TIS, and ADC, which will be available for service by the end of 2023.
Furthermore, NT has several points of presence (PoPs) for data transmission in all regions of the world. Well-equipped with comprehensive and effective terrestrial and submarine cable systems, as well as ensuring consistent quality improvements in line with international standards, NT is a service provider that foreign operators entrust to connect with major global digital hubs, content providers and cloud services around the world.
Data PoP expansion to Singapore and Hong Kong to support increased traffic
To support traffic growth and ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, NT plans to expand its number of PoPs. These will be offered in two forms: general Internet PoPs, linking gateways to the US, Europe and Asia; and Data PoPs, providing private data communications that enable business organisations to connect to foreign countries based on the highest security standards.
Most recently, NT has added Data PoPs to complement existing PoPs in Hong Kong and Singapore, and connected them up to different submarine cables. This activity has helped the original operations grow since 2010 through the addition of the AAE-1 submarine cable system to the existing AAG and APG routes in the Hong Kong Data PoP, and addition of the TIS and APG submarine cable systems to the existing AAG and SMW4 routes in the Singapore Data PoP.
Moreover, the operating platform in these PoPs has been upgraded to support a wider range of connectivity technologies, enabling domestic users to better connect to foreign countries when it comes to both internet use and private network connections. The expansion also reduces risk in the event of a problem with one of the submarine cables, as the system will automatically switch channels to provide the most stable service possible. In addition, the resulting capacity expansions will help increase service capacity to 100Gbps and give Thailand more backup routes for international communications.
NT continues to accelerate the development of telecommunication networks to meet business needs, especially with regard to 5G services, and to drive telecoms and digital services for the country to become an ASEAN digital hub.
