Internet speeds to be faster by 2010



The National Post and Telecommunications Authority will increase Internet speeds by the year 2010 to facilitate information flow for national development.

Director General of the Planning and Cooperation Department Sanith Xaphakdy said yesterday that current Internet speeds are quite slow and a faster system is being developed.

From now until 2010, the authority will focus on building infrastructure and information centres such as a national Internet exchange, national gateway, database centre and national domain name register.

The main reason for building these centres is to speed up Internet services in the country. So far the management of the system has not been centralised, he said, leading to expensive services.

The Prime Minister gave instructions at a meeting last month for the authority to create a mechanism for providing, managing and using the Internet in urban and rural areas.

At the end of 2007, according to a report from the authority, 23 percent of the population used telephones and there were 300 Internet cafes and 60,000 Internet users.

“The Internet network is expanding in both urban and rural areas,” Mr Sanith said.

The report stated that Laos is becoming a centre for telecommunication networks in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) through the GMS programme on telecommunications.

From 2011 to 2015, post and telecom services will reach 50 percent of the population, with 80 percent covered by 2020.

The authority will amend regulations for better management and expand the national telecommunication network in more areas of the country.

In the postal sector, Mr Sanith pledged his authority will establish proper addresses for local residents, making it easier for postal delivery workers to deliver mail to people's houses. Some local residents have complained about the inefficiency of postal services.

The authority has recently been established to centralise postal and telecommunications management.

“If we can manage this sector competently it will speed up the national development process, as the two sectors have seen rapid development in recent years,” Mr Sanith said.

Most rural areas now have telephone access, and more people are using the Internet, especially students.

“Unless more people start using the Internet, the country will retain its ‘least developed' status, and this is why we are promoting Internet use in the education sector,” he said.

The agency also plans to launch a ‘fibre to the home' system, meaning that one cable can be used for television, Internet and telephone. “We've asked for assistance from Japan to set up this new system, but we are yet to receive a response,” Mr Sanith said.

The new authority, which was derived from the former Ministry of Communication, Transportation, Post and Construction, consists of a post department, a telecommuni-cation department, a planning and cooperation department, and an administrative office.

Vientianetimes