Bangkok to debate satellite plan against wire-tapping

The Straits Times, January 22, 2007



BANGKOK - THE Thai Cabinet will debate tomorrow whether it should spend 6 billion baht (S$263 million) on a communications satellite for military and security purposes.

'The new satellite would dispel doubts about eavesdropping,' Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said on Saturday.

He said the only way to prevent phones from being tapped would be for the government to have its own satellites but admitted that would be an expensive strategy.

A cheaper option, he said, would be to use a voice scrambler.

On Thursday, in a message apparently aimed at mobile phone company AIS and satellite company Shinsat, Mr Sitthichai warned that any mobile phone operator tapping lines could have its licence revoked. A day earlier, Council for National Security (CNS) chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin had suggested that the military's phones were being bugged by Singapore.

General Sonthi did not say how this was being done or offer evidence to back up the allegation, which Thai telephone companies rejected.

Singapore is embroiled in a diplomatic spat with Thailand after ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra met Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar earlier this month.

Thailand retaliated by suspending high-level diplomatic meetings.

AIS is Thailand's largest mobile phone operator, with 45 per cent of the market, while Shinsat is the country's only satellite company.

Both are owned by Shin Corp, which was controlled by Mr Thaksin's family before they sold their share to Singapore's Temasek Holdings last year.

Mr Sitthichai was assigned by the CNS to examine the security issues arising from the sale.

The deal has allowed a foreign concern to gain management control over strategic assets such as Shinsat, which holds a government concession to operate ThaiCom satellites, including one that the military depends on for its internal communications and signalling.

Mr Sitthichai said on Saturday that Gen Sonthi wanted to ensure the integrity of military communications.

Revoking the concession for satellite services without proof of compromised national security would be difficult and might rattle investor confidence, he said.

'For an immediate measure to prevent tampering with ThaiCom services, soldiers have been posted at the operator's uplink station,' he said, hinting that the military might want a new satellite as a fixed solution for secured communications.

The government has also ordered the military to switch to walkie-talkies as a precaution against eavesdropping.

THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE