Thai Internet: Getting Less, But Getting It Faster
On Dec. 14, Thaivisa had a story about Thailand blocking US websites:
Today (Dec. 16 Thailand time) Thai Visa posted this announcement about broadband:
The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is today blocking websites hosted in USA.
Example of blocked sites as of this morning: edition.cnn.com, facebook.com, finance.yahoo.com, flickr.com
MICT is redirecting the blocked traffic to their website http://mict.go.th, and instead showing a portrait of HM the King of Thailand together with well wishes for His Majesty's birthday.
Depending on the ISP some users do not face the reported problems. Discussion here: Internet forum branch
Using proxy servers and trying to circumvent government blocked websites is a criminal offense in Thailand.
Today (Dec. 16 Thailand time) Thai Visa posted this announcement about broadband:
CAT Telecom will today open the Asia-America Gateway it has jointly built up with other 18 leading telecom parties. The gateway is a high-bandwidth fibre-optic submarine cable system that connects Southeast Asia to the United States.
Internet users throughout Asia should start to see a dramatic increase in internet speed for websites located outside of the region when the $US550 million Asia-America Gateway (AAG) comes into operation today.
The new 20,000km (about 12,400 miles) AAG - an optical fibre cable network stretching from Malaysia to the West Coast of America via Guam and Hawaii - is now open, according to CAT Telecom.