Good practice Imported

Net Pracharat – Village Broadband Internet Project

Thailand · Bangkok · See the Thailand profile · See the Bangkok profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 23% 92/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Thailand laid fibre broadband to 24,700 rural villages, paired with cascade digital-literacy training reaching 1.2 million people by 2018 and 13.6 million Wi-Fi users by 2025 - though research finds rural elderly still lag far behind in digital skills.

24,700

Villages connected with fibre and free Wi-Fi (2016–2017)

1.2 million

People reached by cascade digital-literacy training (by 2018)

6.6M → 13.6M+

Registered public Wi-Fi users (2019–2025)

Net Pracharat – Village Broadband Internet Project

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (Thailand)
Period: 2016-ongoing
Keywords: rural broadband, digital literacy training, public wifi, e-government access, elderly digital divide

Context

Launched in 2016 by Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society with state operator TOT, Net Pracharat laid fibre-optic cable and free public Wi-Fi into 24,700 rural villages by December 2017, paired with a train-the-trainer digital-literacy programme covering internet basics, e-commerce and government e-services.

Results

Around 1,000 teacher-trainers trained roughly 100,000 community leaders, cascading training to a reported 1.2 million people by September 2018. Registered public Wi-Fi users grew from about 6.6 million (2019) to over 13.6 million (January 2025). Independent Thai research finds rural elderly still lag: only ~62% of over-60s have internet access, falling under 15% for those 75 and older.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-03
Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (Thailand) — accessed 2026-07-03
Asia-Pacific Telecommunity best-practice report on Net Pracharat (MDES co-published) — accessed 2026-07-03
The Nation Thailand - digital infrastructure coverage — accessed 2026-07-03

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 92/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 23% in this catalogue (799 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Innovation level3/5

Combines nationwide fibre/Wi-Fi rollout with a structured train-the-trainer cascade model (teachers to community leaders to residents), an approach recognised internationally via the ITU WSIS Prize.

Sustainability (ongoing)1/1

Still active a decade after launch, with the ministry continuing to expand fibre connectivity to health and education facilities as of 2025.

Evaluation evidence1/1

Village and training counts from the official APT/MDES best-practice report are corroborated by independent Thai press reporting updated Wi-Fi user figures through January 2025.

Demonstrated reach1/1

Reached 24,700 villages and grew to over 13.6 million registered public Wi-Fi users by 2025, with 1.2 million people trained in digital literacy by 2018.

Documented learning1/1

Independent Thai academic research documents that despite the infrastructure rollout, most rural elderly residents still lack functional digital skills - an honestly-reported gap between access and actual digital inclusion.

Cite this

Evidoria. Net Pracharat – Village Broadband Internet Project. Persistent ID: 26d9a5c5-68ba-49e3-9019-aed03bf0a354.

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