dtac story

dtac stresses importance of personal data privacy at trade court discussion

Find out more about our privacy policy here Although the PDPA act’s enforcement has been postponed, dtac stresses companies should get ready now. PDPA affects how businesses collect, use and disclose data. It is not simply a security issue but also requires using personal data in accordance with objectives notified to the data subject, making thorough training of employees necessary. Although its enforcement is postponed to 2022, the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) remains a hot topic for Thai businesses, many of which are anxious about their ability to implement it and its potential impact on trade secrets. To tackle the issue, Mr. Montri Stapornkul, dtac’s privacy expert, joined Thitirat Thipsamritkul, a law lecturer at Thammasat University and Rabkwan Choldamrongkul, the Chief Legal Officer at easyPDPA, to share their views in a talk held at the Intellectual Property and International Trade Court on the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The PDPA is designed to protect personal data both in government and private sectors. The act, which shares similar characteristics with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) implemented by the European Union in 2018, was originally planned to be enforced in May 2020. But most chapters of the act were deferred…

This family-owned textile factory is pushing for a more sustainable future with dtac

dtac "Think Hai d" t-shirts are now made of plastic bottles and old clothes, saving thousands of liters per shirt. While dtac isn’t a clothing brand, the company does produce a line of branded items sold at the dtac House headquarters. As dtac curbs its environmental impact across its entire supply chain, the mobile operator turned its attention to the t-shirts it produces. The manufacturing of a single t-shirt can require enough water to quench a human’s thirst for three years. Moreover, the textile and fashion industry account for 10 per cent of the world’s total carbon-dioxide emissions today. It is the second biggest polluter, behind the energy industry. Thus began dtac’s search for a way to curb its fashion line’s carbon footprint, which led to contracting Saeng Charoen Grand Company Limited (SC GRAND), Thailand’s first textile recycling factory. Jirarot “Wat” Pojanavaraphan, managing director and third-generation owner of SC GRAND , told dtac blog, “For dtac’s t-shirt production, we use two sources of recycled materials: old clothes and plastic bottles. The result is a recycled polyester fiber blend. With four old t-shirts and four plastic bottles, we can make one brand-new t-shirt!” The process begins with separating textile waste by…

The unique needs of the fastest growing segment of digital users in Thailand

During Thailand’s lockdown prepaid mobile customers embraced digital channels. But their livelihoods are affected, making affordable connectivity more critical than ever. dtac is responding by making connectivity and adjacent services more accessible to all. This month, dtac is launching discounted pharmacy vouchers, a first that is a long way from phone calls and internet access. By partnering with licensed pharmacies across Thailand, dtac can help its customers pay less for their healthcare needs and avoid fake or incorrectly prescribed drugs on the black market. However unusual for a mobile operator, the new offer is part of a wider effort to adapt to the changing needs of prepaid customers, whose transformation accelerated during Thailand’s lockdown from March to May. To learn more, dtacblog spoke with four members of the Value Creation team, Nussaraporn Sumretphol, Sirilux Sathittaweechai, Pornruedee Boriboonphanijkit, and Mali Vithayasritada. dtac has long been aware of prepaid customers’ need for extra support to use mobile services. Since 2004, the service Jai Dee Borrow (jai dee means good-hearted in Thai) has allowed customers to borrow credit, rather than see their service suspended. Over the next decade, Jai Dee was expanded to Jai Dee Balance Transfer, Jai Dee Emergency Call Back and…

dtac says stringent waste sorting needed to slow Thailand’s mounting trash problems

There is growing awareness in Thailand for the environmental impact of waste on our soil, air and water. The year kicked off with ban on single-use plastic bags, which were previously handed out so freely that even buying a bottle of water in a convenience store would come with an obligatory accompaniment of one straw and one small bag. But then urban waste almost doubled between January and March from a year ago mainly due to increased food deliveries propelled by social distancing. Today, Thailand’s trash problems remain as pressing as ever. Considering its own environmental impact, dtac has committed to zero landfill by 2022. Achieving this target will involve stringent sorting of waste. Last year, dtac generated 281 tons of general waste. Bringing that figure to zero means carefully separating all trash into six categories that can be processed through recycling, incineration, or even used as fish food. It is a difficult task that involves educating thousands of employees on the complex distinctions between trash types. dtac blog sat down with Kultawat Sindhuseka, dtac’s head of facility and his team members – Vipada Manutad and Trintapat Akarawanidvhawat, to talk about their role in handling the waste at dtac facilities…

We all have a part to play in solving Thailand’s urgent waste problem

This is a guest post by Rachaya Kulnapongse, Head of Sustainability, dtac. When it comes to waste, it is the plastics at sea that generate the largest headlines in Thailand. In 2018, the story of a whale that washed ashore in Songkhla gripped the nation. After it died an agonizing death, the postmortem revealed the poor beast had starved to death, its stomach filled with 80 plastic bags. A year later, a 10km long island of trash floating in the Gulf of Thailand again provided an all too vivid reminder of waste’s impact on the oceans. By contrast, the waste accumulating in Thailand’s landfills is often ignored, despite being a major source of air, soil and water pollution. According to the Pollution Control Department, solid and hazardous waste in Thailand increased by 15 percent over the past decade. Bangkok alone produces 4.84 million tons a year, accounting for 17 percent of landfills in the country. Around 30 percent of solid waste is managed and disposed of sustainably, while the rest is added to landfills which grow larger every day. The growth of waste is global, driven by rapid urbanization, growing global populations and overconsumption in high-income countries. It leads to…

Researcher highlights role of education in cyberbullying

“They’re just playing. Don’t take it seriously.” If you grew up in a Thai school, chances are you’ve at one point encountered this line or something like it — from pupils and teachers alike. Sadly, an ignorance towards the toxic nature of bullying pervades Thailand’s education system. Modern technology could hold so many keys to help spread a wider understanding of bullying and its consequences, but instead we see new digital spaces making bullying more widespread, and with less accountability. Online social platforms have widened the prevalence of bullying in Thailand to the point that it now sits in the top five countries with the highest number of reported cyberbullying cases globally, according to the Department of Mental Health. Mr. Thanee Chaiwat, director of the Chulalongkorn Experimental Economics Center, has dedicated years of research to the problem. Last year, dtac commissioned Mr. Thanee to conduct a research study on cyberbullying behavior among secondary school students in greater Bangkok in a bid to understand the root cause of the problem. The move came as part of dtac’s ongoing initiative to advocate against and raise public awareness towards the risk cyberbullying poses to the nation. Abuses of power Cyberbullying fits within a…

Saving businesses and putting a smile on your face is this team’s dtac reward

When Thailand’s lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in late March, restaurants and food vendors had to cease operations. The impact on these small businesses was a total loss of revenue. In response to this, dtac joined hands with local food delivery services to launch the #savestreetfood campaign, offering special discounts for food delivery services through the dtac app. The initiative saw record levels of engagement on the dtac reward privileges platform, besting even pre-lockdown months. dtacblog spoke to the team behind the campaign’s success: Kasawan Kungvalpivat and Phannaphat Niyommalai from dtac reward and Peeraya Dejtanasoontorn and Chutikarn Chumnanchanun from Brand Communications. Before #savestreetfood, they had been working Happy Friday, a dtac reward campaign launched at the beginning of 2020 with offers on free food and drinks available every Friday. In the campaign’s first month, dtac reward saw more than 86,000 redemptions, thanks to a particularly popular bubble tea giveaway. But as the lockdown became imminent, most of the Happy Friday partners were about to close shop. “COVID-19 put limitations on our way of work. But it also forced us to become more creative and flexible. Otherwise, we might still have approached this campaign the same way…

New behaviors to thrive in the new normal

This is a guest post from Sharad Mehrotra, CEO of dtac. These are confusing times. No one knows exactly when lockdowns will be fully lifted or how long the economy will take to recover. Rather than attempt to divine or control the unknowable, I believe now is a good time to focus on what is within our control: our own behaviors. dtac just introduced four new behaviors to guide us in the new normal. They perfectly respond to the uncertainty and rapid pace of change that the COVID-19 outbreak has thrust upon us. This is not a time to retreat, to stop innovating or to work in isolation. On the contrary, we believe now is the time to always explore, create together, keep promises and be respectful. ALWAYS EXPLORE What we see: After the declaration of emergency, dtac saw immediate changes in the usage patterns of our customers. Productivity apps like Zoom and Microsoft Office grew by triple digits. And high-traffic areas for internet usage shifted from office centers in central Bangkok to residential zones further afield. While some emergency measures are now being relaxed, we expect remote work and a more rapid adoption of digital channels to stay. In…

How to manage stress and maintain positive energy during COVID-19?

During the unprecedented time of COVID-19, people are more concerned about their physical health to prevent infections – using face masks, cleaning hands often with soap or hand sanitizer. Besides, people are unconsciously suffering mental health problems with fear, stress and anxiety. According to data from the department of mental health, it showed that around 73.91% of Thais have moderate mental health problems, followed by mild illness at 20.37% and severe level at 5.72%. The survey was made weekly between Mar 24 and May 24 with 1,500 respondents. Additionally, Thailand are facing the growing trend of suicide rates, increasing from 6.03 from 2018 to 6.64 in late last year. (The figure is per 100,000 people) Those numbers flag an urgency of how people to cope with mental health crisis during this tough time. In an interview, Pichai Ittasakul, the secretary general at The Psychiatric Association of Thailand (PAT), discusses about the current situation of mental health, symptoms development of mental illness and how to develop and maintain positive energy during COVID-19 time. How is the current situation of Thais’ mental health? The increasing numbers of news reports about suicidal incidents during this unprecedented time can identify the rise of mental…

Connectivity’s role in fighting COVID-19

As the global tally for declared COVID-19 cases nears six million, Thailand has emerged relatively unscathed. Credit is being given to a public health strategy that effectively coordinated medical workers and the cutting-edge technology. dtac bloghad spoke to two key players at the Department of Disease Control (DDC), the main government agency in flattening the curve: Thanarak Plipat, its deputy chief, and Phathai Singkham, Head of Disease Prevention and Health Innovation Center. The mission to flatten the curve Thanarak Plipat said the public health strategy to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus 2019 rests on four pillars: prevention, surveillance, treatment and control. Prevention involves mitigating the virus’s spread by encouraging adequate hygiene such as frequently washing hands with water and soap, wearing a face mask, avoiding groups of people, eating hot food and using serving spoons for shared dishes. The information campaigns were targeted even more intensively in workers housing, migrant communities and elderly hospices. Surveillance is the systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of health data for the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health programs. This also includes active surveillance, which involves monitoring the spread of the coronavirus disease in order to establish the patterns of disease…

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