CAT Telecom Public Company Limited () is the state-owned company that runs Thailand’s international telecommunications infrastructure, including its international gateways, satellite, and submarine cable networks connections. Since 2021 CAT Telecom became the National Telecom Public Company Limited after merging with TOT Public Company Limited. Services Until recently, CAT had a monopoly on international telephony and CDMA mobile telephony. CAT partnered with TOT to provide the GSM mobile service Thai Mobile. In partnership with Hutchison, it provided a CDMA2000 1x mobile service in 25 central provinces and operated its own CDMA2000 1xEV-DO in 51 provinces. CAT provides data communications and applications services, such as leased line, Fiber-to-the-Premises, Gigabit Ethernet, xDSL, live TV broadcast, e-Commerce, e-Auction, and e-Security. History CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (Thailand) was established on August 14, 2003, by the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Plans were under way to privatize a portion of the state enterprise through an IPO in the Stock Exchange of Thailand but these plans were cancelled after the Thaksin government was overthrown by a coup on 19 September 2006. Soon after the coup, the junta of General Surayud Chulanont announced plans to merge CAT with rival state telecom enterprise TOT (Telephone Organization of Thailand). Before 2003, CAT was an abbreviation for Communications Authority of Thailand, a Thai government agency. Despite not having been privatized, CAT was still made into a state-owned enterprise (though without the IPO to Stock Exchange of Thailand). It became a public company (with 100% of shares held by the Thai government) with its name CAT, where CAT is no longer an abbreviation for the Communications Authority of Thailand. Any telecommunication regulation was transferred to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC). The junta appointed General Saprang Kalayanamitr as the new chairman of the board of directors for both CAT and TOT. Saprang was accused by the founders of PTV, a new satellite television station, of being behind CAT's refusal to grant an internet link from Bangkok to a satellite up-link station in Hong Kong. PTV was established by some previous executives of the Thai Rak Thai party. CAT, however, claimed that it never received PTV's application for internet access. The junta also canceled the Thaksin government's telecom excise tax policy. The Thaksin government imposed an excise tax on private fixed and cellular services, and then allowed telecom companies to deduct the amount they paid in excise tax from concession