برنامه ریزی توسعه زیرساخت در SEA: تجزیه و تحلیل، تمرین برنامه ریزی ارتباطات از راه دور ملی در تایلند

The development of a telecommunications infrastructure is underway in both the developing and developed nations. The challenges of the development of a national telecommunications infrastructure for developing economies differ significantly from the developed economies. This study provides an analysis of the telecommunications infrastructure development process in Thailand. It does this by examining the Telecommunications Planning Practice (TPP) within the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). A multiple case study design approach is used for exploring the underlying TPP strategies at play among the Thai telecommunications players. The theoretical contribution of this study can be seen from the analyses that have contributed towards the understanding of the TPP strategies among Thai telecommunications managers. This has also helped in establishing the theoretical justifications for the development of a formal national telecommunications development agenda in Thailand.

The governments of most developing nations like Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, China, India and others have initiated a step towards the restructuring of telecommunications sector, with a notable lack of emphasis on the comprehensive telecommunications strategic planning effort (Lindley and Hossain, 1996). There are few appropriate policy frameworks in place for ensuring the involvement of the concerned telecommunications bodies in the planning process for formulating national telecommunications objectives. The governments of south east Asian economies therefore need to define their strategies and policies to achieve national telecommunications objectives by developing detailed plans of action. At this stage, two assumptions need to be addressed in NTPP. The first is the identification of issues, pressures, and characteristics of NTPP. The second is the development of NTPP theoretical constructs. The focus of this paper is on the identification of key NTPP issues, and the organisational strategic planning framework. The roles of the SOEs and other governmental organisations in NTPP have also been addressed. The implications of the study for NTPP in Thailand are also discussed.

Comparison of theoretical and actual constructs has suggested that a formal planning process can assist developing countries like Thailand, in formulating and implementing NTPP. It was argued in the preceding sections that the concept of telecommunications planning process and NTPP is at the core of the success of a telecommunications plan and a national telecommunications plan. It is also important to mention that the central thesis of this study is based on the assumption that unless an appropriate telecommunications planning process can be installed at the organisational level, a national telecommunications plan cannot succeed. The present study has also demonstrated the need to adopt a multiple theoretical approach for developing our understanding of the theory of planning and the theory in planning for the telecommunications industry in Thailand. The theoretical background of this study also provided an understanding of the relationships between organisations, telecommunications planning process and environment, which are embedded in the analysis of NTPP in Thailand. The synthesis of a normative-descriptive dichotomy of strategic planning theories suggests that it is now time for countries like Thailand and academic researchers to view strategic planning as a consensus building process. On the basis of the synthesis of the national case study findings, the pragmatic working model as described in the theoretical background resulted in predicting that the essence of strategic planning should be on the consensus building process. The formal end outcome of this research clearly meets the requirements of the research objective and provides a comprehensive answer to the basic research question. The findings also justify the need for a more formal strategic planning process for the telecommunications planning practices of the major players for ensuring the development of the national telecommunications infrastructure in Thailand.