Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and ... - GFDRR

Telecommunications Sector
Summary
The telecommunications sector includes landline communications, cellular communications,
broadcasting (television and radio) and postal services. The telecommunications sector
in Thailand is dominated by mobile communications. Most of the major damage was to
landline communications in urban areas and industrial estates where services have been
disrupted. Over three hundred cellular communications sites, mostly in Bangkok and
neighboring provinces, have also been affected. The broadcasting and postal services
were also affected, though to a lesser degree.
The losses in the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors accounted for the loss of
revenue due to the disruption of services caused by the floods, and the extra expenditures
for emergency repair of damaged sites and reconnection of the services. Revenue losses
were relatively substantive in all sub-sectors.
The priority needs for recovery and reconstruction are to restore full services within the
first six months, building back with immediate risk reduction measures.
The medium-term will put efforts in improving the resiliency of existing terrestrial infrastructures
through a number of mitigation measures and a review of policies to achieve the
mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction into the telecommunications sector. More studies
should be carried out to assess the impacts to the systems and cost the substantive
mitigation measures to be put in place during the medium and long term.
Table 44: Telecommunications
sector - Damage,
losses and needs in Thai
baht, millions
In the long-term, the expansion of telecommunications and broadcasting networks should
be designed to be more resilient to multi-hazards, and substantial investment for a resilient
infrastructure better prepared for multi-hazards should be encouraged.
Disaster Impacts
Ownership Recovery and Reconstruction Needs
Sub-sector/
Component Damage Losses Total Public Private ~6 mths 6-24 mths > 24 mths
Land-line
communications
Cellular
communications
Broadcasting
Postal services
TOTAL
742.32
280.92
131.39
135.00
1,289.63
1,995.51
699.09
488.73
175.00
2,558.33
1,937.83
980.01
620.12
310.00
3,847.97
865.58
19.65
401.86
310.00
1,597.09
1,072.25
960.37
218.26
-
2,250.88
926.37
364.92
170.20
177.00
1,674.49
531.0
541.7
173.6
175.0
1,421.3
180.0
270.0
360.0
170.0
980.0
Note: *The needs include cost estimates for disaster resilience and build back better. However, more detailed studies should be carried out by
service providers to assess the impacts of the systems progressively as the flood recedes and cost the substantive mitigation measures to be put in
place during the medium-term and long-term.
THAI FLOOD 2011 RAPID ASSESSMENT FOR RESILIENT RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION PLANNING
127