CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (CAT) has organized the “Success to Phuket Smart City” event, and revealed LoRa IoT by CAT at Bhukitta Grand Ballroom Hotel in Phuket province, with Dr. Pichet Durongkaveroj, Minister of Digital Economy and Society, presiding over the event. Also attending the unveiling ceremony of ‘LoRaWAN’ wireless network were the Phuket Governor, representatives from the project alliance, universities, governmental units and the private sector. The move is part of the push for the establishment of Phuket Smart City as the first smart city in Thailand, in accordance with the policy of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.

         Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana, the President of CAT, revealed that the company is determined to develop the ‘LoRWAN’ wireless network to support the IoT services, in line with the government’s Thailand 4.0 agenda. He emphasized on the Smart City project and added that the company has chosen Phuket to be the first province to debut the LoRaWAN network. The CAT President said that the wireless network signal would cover the entire Phuket province. He explained that the establishment of the network would facilitate various aspects of smart services and IoT devices in the province, which are on the rise. President Sanpachai clarified that the key factors in develop a smart city are infrastructure and services. He stated the company has already erected 1,000 hotspots of high speed ‘Free Wi-Fi’ network across the province, and recently installed the LoRaWAN wireless network for IoT. Colonel Sanpachai indicated that, after setting up a complete wireless infrastructure, CAT has also worked on several services, offering a myriad of network solutions together with its local partners. He said the move would satisfy the need to develop the city as a tourism industrial hub.

In 2017, CAT laid down the ‘LoRaWAN’ wireless network in Phuket. The network is designed to support the IoT services and the development of several smart services in a smart city, as found in various smart cities from around the globe. LoRaWAN will act as an arbiter in receiving and sending data to/from devices and centers, which is essential in smart services in a smart city. These smart services include Smart Metering, Smart Buildings, Smart Lighting, Smart Parking, Smart Farming, Smart Logistics and Smart Tourism. These services utilize the method of transmitting a signal that covers a long distance, uses low energy and cuts the operating cost, all of which are major advantages of the LoRaWAN wireless network.

       The CAT has also debuted the ‘LoRa IoT by CAT’ platform to facilitate the business sector interested in developing and creating new innovations for the LoRaWAN services. Currently the company is testing its GPS Tracking system, one of its IoT services, which record the locations of various vehicles in the province such as cars, motorbikes, dump trucks and coaches. The use of IoT services in Phuket has a tendency to increase, especially from the tourism sector, such as speed boat business owners, who deploy the technology to ensure the safety of their customers by installing the GPS tracking devices on their vehicles and providing tracking wristbands for their customers. There are also other campaigns that the CAT is working with its alliance to support the smart tourism campaign such as the Smart Phuket 4.0 mobile application, the ‘Beacon’ devices that accurately inform tourists and foreigners in the province about product deals and tourist attraction data straight from the information sources and ‘Digital Signage’, a massive digital screen displaying basic information such as famous restaurants, tourist spots, accommodation, hospitals and locations of key governmental offices, to name a few.

        “In the future, the information on the behaviors and activities [of tourists] we collect will be compiled into the ‘Big Data Platform’” that will be greatly beneficial to the business owners in Phuket. They can perform deep analysis on the consumer behaviors, which is not possible using the information in the previous approach. This reflects the IoT’s influence in creating understanding and relations in the business sector. In term of city management, [the Phuket Provincial Administration] can also take advantages of the Big Data platform to improve the quality of life and the safety of the locals, while addressing the city’s various issues. This can later lead to the ‘City Data Platform’ that will improve the city management in all aspects and push Phuket to be a world class smart city.”

         CAT focuses on the development of smart city under the concept ‘Smart Life, Smart Solution, Smart City’, which underlines the joint establishment of the ecosystem that promotes the development of smart services in the province among key partners such as governmental units, which include local administrative organizations and the provincial administrative organization, a group of innovation researchers from the nation’s leading universities, the private sector, such as the Maker Clubs, and the residents of Phuket themselves. The governmental units will be responsible for the policies related to the project, the researchers will take on the task of research and development and the locals will provide feedback to the developers.

       The development of the following smart cities will be faster, using the ‘Model Phuket’. The services that will be developed in these cities will depend on the demand of each province, although there are overlap items, such as the GPS tracking system and the system that facilitates transportation, etc. Nonetheless, the LoRa IoT by CAT is capable of developing systems and devices that will satisfy the unique demands of each location such as the issues of garbage disposal, environmental problems, pollution, and the lack of parking spaces. These problems can be addressed by using the IoT services to increase the management capability. Currently CAT is working with its local alliance, both from the government and the private sectors, in collecting the demand and issues from each city, in preparation for the development of the next smart cities.

      CAT is implementing the Model Phuket in 18 major provinces. The company is expecting to soon open the LoRa IoT by CAT in Bangkok and its vicinity, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Rayong, Chachoengsao, Nan, Saraburi, Nakhon Nayok, Prachinburi, Songkhla, Surat Thani, Nakhon Ratchasima, Maha Sarakham, Udon Thani, Ubon Ratchathani and Nakhon Pathom. The aforementioned list also covered the three provinces in the Eastern Economic Corridor, namely Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoengsao.