With changes in Thailand's law and policy on foreign satellites (please see https://fosrlaw.com/foreign-satellite-services-in-thailand/), political and legal issues involving restrictions on the export of computer chips for artificial intelligence (for more information on Thailand's current AI policy, please see https://fosrlaw.com/ai-machine-learning-and-big-data-2023-thailand/), there is increased interest in building and operating data centres in Thailand. Indeed, Thailand's well-known "Eastern Economic Corridor", where auto manufacturers have long operated, is now being further developed to stimulate the construction of data centres.
"Data centre services" is not explicitly defined under Thailand's telecommunication law. As per our previous article on Thailand's telecommunication law (please see https://fosrlaw.com/thailands-telecommunications-business-act/), the definition of "telecommunication service" refers to the various means through which information is transmitted, received, and processed using different systems such as Hertzian, wire, optical, electromagnetic, or any combination of these. These services include communication satellite services and other businesses categorized as telecommunications services by the NBTC.
The structure and authority of telecommunications law in Thailand grant the regulator authority to determine "other business prescribed as telecommunications services by the NBTC". Therefore, the above-referenced statutory language gives the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) legal jurisdiction to decide data centre services as a telecommunication service.
With such authority, the NBTC created a Type 1 telecommunication license for data centres and has issued multiple permits accordingly. "Data centre services" require a Type 1 license and point to service providers that supply infrastructure such as electricity, security, fire protection, and connectivity to third-party networks.
The NBTC data centre license also references data centre solutions to "facilitate cloud solution services", which is often confused as a licensing requirement for cloud service providers. However, the license requirement is for a service that supplies a data centre solution to a cloud service provider. Only under certain conditions does a cloud service provider need a license from the NBTC. Please see https://fosrlaw.com/cloud-services-telecommunication-licensing-in-thailand/, where we discuss cloud services and telecommunications licensing.
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