Netlinkz is poised to provide both its NaaS and satellite internet services in Thailand. Pic via Getty Images.
Netlinkz entering Thailand market under deal with ALT Telecom
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Netlinkz is poised to offer its services to the Thailand market barely a month after signing an agreement with Space X which made it only one of ten global resellers of Starlink terminals.
As 2022 closed, the company announced enquiries for 30,000 units from “Australian and foreign governments, multi-nationals, local and overseas telecoms and rural and remote businesses and communities”.
Now the company is adding to this momentum with ALT Telecom, a listed Thai telco supplier, lobbing a partnership proposal which combines its regional distribution capacity with Netlinkz (ASX:NET) services and Virtual Secure Network in bundled form.
“This is a break-out moment for Netlinkz. After the initial letter of intent this deal has developed with surprising speed,” chief executive officer James Tsiolis told Stockhead.
“ALT Telecom is one of the leading SE Asian suppliers of comms hardware and services. It offers support for many industries. Among other things it lays cable, erects mobile towers, instals solar farms, has interests in EV charging, provides internet services and develops IoT projects.
“It also has a Type-111 telecommunications licence. In one way or another it is all networking, so we touch at many points.”
Tsiolis added that Netlinkz’s VSN has secured networks for multinationals and large governments organisations on a global basis since 2019 and now has multiple use cases for its secure network-as-a-service products.
These vary from high-speed processing of financial data to feed from security cameras; data generated by wind and solar farms, large scale water management systems and networks integrated with cloud support.
“Each of these had specific objectives, but they all have general application. Every internet connected sensor is in principle much the same whether it is temperature monitor in a building or a friction sensor in a car or truck,” he explained.
“This is very much ALT’s territory as it is manufacturers and installs base stations, electricity meters, antennas, and similar hardware so there is a good fit. They make switches; we connect what’s between.”
Upgrading security
ALT’s letter of intent also reflects the migration of manufacturing south from China to Thailand and its neighbours due to their rising skill levels and still modest labour costs.
This requires companies to upgrade their digitisation and their cyber security.
Some of the early movers include Dell, Google and HP while Apple-Foxconn is now following suit, transferring part of its smart phone production to Vietnam.
This growth could explain why ALT decided to make its move at this time.
“Thailand and Vietnam especially are keen to attract multi-nationals and sophisticated contract manufacturing,” Tsiolis added.
“These are the new exporting countries so high-performance networking can be critical across the whole business – from the suppliers to the final destination. There’s not much point in the “C-suite” alone having what it believes to be state-of-the art security if hackers hijack their iPhones or laptops when they work from home.”
He noted that there were roughly 280 million people just in the arc of countries formed by Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
This jumps to 760 million ounce you include the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.
“True, these are still very different countries with different tariffs, currencies and so on, but there is economic convergence happening,” Tsiolis explained.
“The Thais see this as their moment. The 2020 ‘Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement’ provides the working drawing. We see the heavy weights China and Japan on the periphery as important capital investors, but the inner core are mid-income economies like Thailand and increasingly Vietnam and Indonesia.
“Thailand’s “medical tourism” gives us some sense of the skill levels developing in these places. Australia and New Zealand have signed too as important suppliers.
“Our lithium and other metals will play a big role as these economies begin to build gigafactories and try to meet climate goals.
“High quality comms may not everything for an organization, but it can be a key enabler, especially when integrated with a multi-cloud approach.
“We can see Australian suppliers being drawn into this region even more as the speed and experience of communication reaches a new level. We have been calling it the ‘Near North’ for a while now. It is now becoming the ‘Much Nearer North’ – just nanoseconds away.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Netlinkz (ASX:NET), a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
