自1980年代開始,在英國柴契爾政府的引領之下,全世界興起一股民營化的風潮。而電信業做為國家重要的產業之一,對於國家內部的經濟與社會發展有極大的幫助,因此,從1980年代開始出現開放的聲浪與行動。泰國從1980年代末期展開大規模的電信改革,主要可以分為兩階段:第一階段從1980年代末期到1997年金融危機爆發為止。在第一階段的電信改革中,主要是因為泰國的國有電信企業無法滿足從1980年代初期經濟快速發展所產生的大量需求,電信服務的基礎設施嚴重不足,因此,政府決定透過興建-轉移-營運的方式,開放民間部門參與以往由國家壟斷的電信業:以固網電話與行動電話為主,第二階段的電信改革則從1997年金融危機之後開始,泰國政府希望透過電信業主計畫的通過建立電信監理架構,並且配合WTO的承諾而全面開放電信市場。但是這兩階段的電信改革卻無法解決電信業原本存在的問題並進而提升電信業的競爭力,反而因為在開放過程中釋出大量租金,引起政治力量的介入而產生貪污腐化的問題,並且強化了泰國原本以來一直存在的「金權政治」。
Telecommunication is one of the most rapidly burgeoning industries that have propelled economic and social developments in many countries. The Thai telecommunication industry is no exception. Rapid economic expansion boosted the demand for basic telephone services in the early 1980s, paving the way for the industry's systematic reform taking place in the late 1980s. There have been two phases in the Thai telecommunications reform. In the first phase during the late 1980s and the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the Thai government embraced deregulation and limited private participation through Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO) scheme, including four fixed-line telephone and mobile phone concessions in the early 1990s. In the second phase that began after the aforementioned crisis, the Thai telecommunications industry entrenched liberalization, which dismissed state monopoly and encouraged broader competition, in order to comply with Thailand's WTO commitment for full market access in the basic telecommunication services by 2006. However, the telecommunications reforms in Thailand failed to achieve the fundamental goal, as a result of rampant rent-seeking associated with the opportunities unleashed by liberalization. The corruption marked by rent-seeking also exacerbated ”money politics” in Thailand.