PARTNER FEATURE: In Thailand, the fixed broadband coverage of rural area is very low compared with urban area. In the beginning of 2017, among 74987 villages, 60% still have no fixed broadband coverage. The major reasons lead to this situation are higher construction cost, harsh outdoor environment and longer period of ROI (return on investment).

Without broadband, the lower informatization level makes village people unable to access advanced agriculture technology and unable to communicate with broader external market. This situation is not good for eliminating poverty and the sustainable development of rural area.

The “Thailand 4.0” plan started from 2017 is planned to promote Thailand economy to a higher level by introducing new emerging industries. An important part of this plan is to eliminate “inequality trap”, which including information gap between urban and rural area.

To meet this challenge, Thailand government started the Village Broadband Internet project (Net Pracharat, https://netpracharat.com/Netpracharat_EN/one-page/) to improve the informatization level of rural area, and TOT (Telephone of Thailand Public Company Limited) is the owner responsible for network deployment.

As long term strategic partner, TOT choose ZTE to take part in this project together.

Based on the rich experience in Thailand market, ZTE proposes special designed solutions for this project.

In this network architecture, three major parts are OLT for fiber aggregation, outdoor optical fiber and terminal ONT for user access. Each part must face the special requirements of rural environment.

  1. Low cost compact OLT most suitable for the user scattered scenario in rural areas. ZTE OLT C320 is hardware/software scalable. It has 2 universal service line card slots and can expand the capacity by adding new service line card. It can support future technology and service by change service cards or software. It is a 10G PON ready platform and can protect operator’s investment. ZTE OLT C320 have Combo solution to support GPON & 10G PON both in one service line card. TOT is deploying 2.5G GPON currently, and can migrate to 10G GPON on demand.
  2. Robust outdoor cabinet to hold OLT safely. Compared with urban area, rural end users are sparse distributed. In rural area, install OLT in outdoor cabinet is more economic than in central office. ZTE specially designed dual sheet aluminium alloy outdoor cabinet capable of corrosion prevention and better heat dissipation, makes inner device work normally in the severe hot summer. Small size outdoor cabinet capable of pole mount, ground mount and wall mount, suitable for various rural environment.
  3. Multi-service terminal ONT supports access for both home usage and backhaul of WiFi AP. This ONT can be used for home usage by place it on the desktop. Also, it can be installed in outdoor box to provide backhaul access for WiFi AP.
  4. Using aerial cabling solution for outdoor optical fiber cable deployment. Aerial cabling can avoid ditching civil work and is the best choice for rural area. With the help from government, TOT cooperate with electricity company to mount outdoor optical fiber cable on the electricity pole. This solution can lower down the road right cost and difficulty, increase the deployment efficiency.
  5. ZTE set up a joint deployment team with TOT to offer high quality product and rapid deployment service, that helps TOT increase the broadband coverage in a short period of time.

To Dec 2017, the Net Pracharat project finished fixed broadband coverage of 24700 rural villages successfully. To Dec 2018, the villages with access to fixed broadband reach to more than 90%.

Based on this broadband network, Thailand government set up the free WiFi hotspot for rural people, even unaffordable one can visit Internet easily, the network speed can up to download 30Mbps and upload 10Mbps. To Nov 2018, there are more than 4.5 million subscribers accessed to the free WiFi. The subscribers increased with the rate of 200,000-300,000 every month. According to the statistics, till Sept 2018, Thailand government provided training of career skill for more than 1 million local people through this broadband network. This achievement greatly improved the development level of rural area.

In 2019, TOT and ZTE will jointly extend the fixed broadband coverage to the schools in remote areas.