Minister's nod for TOT, CAT investments awaits new boards
Information and Communications Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap has yet to approve the big network investment plans of TOT and CAT Telecom and will look into their details after the state telecommunication enterprises get new boards.
The directors are expected to be appointed next week or by the end of this month, Anudith said yesterday.
Both state enterprises have to adjust their investment plans to serve the government's policies as well as to generate revenues.
They must avoid investing in overlapping areas such as fibre-optic networks, he said.
CAT plans to spend Bt6 billion on establishing its fibre-optic network to provide broadband service. The project was approved by the previous government.
CAT also plans to procure a telecom-tower system for Bt12 billion next year to support the third-generation wireless broadband service it offers under a partnership with the True Corp group.
TOT plans to spend Bt13 billion |on the deployment of a "next-generation network" to provide broad-|band multimedia services.
Both state enterprises are pinning their hopes on these network projects to boost their revenue in the future.
The ministry has also finished collecting information on the complaints against the lack of transparency of its state telecom enterprises regarding |their project developments and their joint investments with private telecom operators.
