The Information and Communications Technology Ministry of Thailand has established a high-speed international Internet network to support the research and development and education sectors and to enhance the skills of the researchers and students at universities in Thailand.
It will link up with TEIN2 (Trans-Eurasia Information Network), built by the Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe (DANTE), a European non-profit organisation. DANTE constructs and operates pan-European research networks and TEIN2 is the backbone infrastructure behind building Asian and Euro-Asian Internet connectivity. TEIN2 provides a continuous and consistent environment for electronic collaboration for research and education between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. According to Ajin Jirachiefpattana, Head of the ICT Ministry's Infrastructure Management Group, the ministry has planned to spend Bt20 million to provide international bandwidth at speeds of up to 155 megabits per second to link with TEIN2. There is also plan to offer 10Mbps of bandwidth to the Lao government, which will also open up the network to its researchers. TEIN2 network is expected to support Asian research and education up to 2007. DANTE plans to upgrade the network to TEIN3 after that, it will run from 2008 to 2012. The new TEIN infrastructure has the target to provide innovative research and educational collaboration and support with broader humanitarian objectives.
