The Eastern Economic Corridor (EECO), a special economic zone of three provinces in eastern Thailand, has partnered with state-owned National Telecommunications (NT) to launch the country’s first 5G pilot.
Under the plan, the district of Ban Chang, Rayong, will become Thailand’s first progressive smart city, according to a statement.
Ban Chang 5G City press conference / Source: EECO
The two companies said infrastructure around the Ban Chang Subdistrict Municipality is being improved to prepare the area for various communications systems, including frequency technologies that support the industrial development of 5G.
EECO and NT plan to work with other business operators via an infrastructure-sharing concept, which will reduce investment duplication between the public and private sectors and capitalize on government assets.
Recently, the two entities have teamed up to install a device to check their 5G Smart Pole system, which has been tested to capture over 10 real-time functions. Through 5G network signals, the Smart Poles can transfer and sync data with the government to provide real-time access to information and assistance.
Cloud network software provider Mavenir Systems was also selected to focus on network transformation and networking for communication service providers.
Additionally, NT has collaborated with other network players such as 5G Catalyst Technologies, Planet Communications Asia, and Cisco Systems.
Serial entrepreneur Shannon Kalayanamitr has launched 5G Catalyst Technologies and will serve as the chief executive of the company. She will be spearheading this initiative.
She also announced that she has stepped down from her role as venture partner at Gobi Partners, but will continue as an advisor in the VC firm.
Kalayanamitr was the founder and group CMO of lifestyle ecommerce platform Moxy (which later became Orami) until she quit the company in 2017.
Update (March 16, 2021, 21:30pm SGT): This article was updated to include Shannon Kalayanamitr’s new role.
Editing by Collin Furtado and Eileen C. Ang
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