2 Quotes & Sayings By Mechai Viravaidya
Mechai Viravaidya is the founder of Thailand's largest Internet Service Provider, ThaiBB (ThaiBBS), which operates the world's largest free Internet community, with over 10 million registered users. He is known as the "father of the Internet." Viravaidya's vision of a free-flow Internet has over the years become a reality. His network of ISPs now connects more than 15 million users in more than 100 countries. Viravaidya was an early adopter of new technology and started using computers, email, and the Internet before anyone else in Thailand. Viravaidya's early work on computer networks has been regarded as seminal in the development of the Internet in Thailand
He was also one of the first people to understand how information technology could be used to change people's lives for the better. Viravaidya was born in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 30, 1947. He graduated from Srinakharinwirot University with a degree in Economics. He started his first company called RCS Corporation (RCS) in 1973, which became an ISP in 1975, and founded ThaiBBS in 1992.
In 1996 he began building a fiber-optic network across Thailand and by 1999 had completed construction of an international satellite communications network linking Thailand with the US through "Project Free Telecom". In 1997 ThaiBBS launched its online service providing free access to all content on the Internet and later that year began offering free e-mail and instant messaging services and metering based billing for its subscribers. In 2000 he completed construction of an international fiber-optic network linking Thailand to Canada and became one of the first ISPs to launch an online telephone service called MiniTalk (now NetCall). The NetCall service allows customers to make free (or low cost) international calls to 190 countries via satellite/satellite cell phones or wireless handsets using an 800 number. In 2005 Viravaidya set up a company called "Net Zero", which sells electricity generated from solar energy and built Thailand's largest solar power plant at Doi Sai with 60 MW (megawatts) capacity and became one of the first ISPs in Thailand to sell energy generated by solar energy off-grid.
Viravaidya has been awarded many honors including UNESCO Award for Sustainable Energy Development; Inernational Award for Creation of World Wide Web; Inernational Award for Universal Access to Information. In 1996 Viravaidya received