Deal with concession issue next year, minister tells CAT, TOT
The two state telecom agencies should finalise plans next year on how they will deal with the approaching ends of their private cellular concession terms, Information and Communications Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap said.
CAT Telecom owns the concessions of TrueMove, Digital Phone Co (DPC), and Total Access Communication (DTAC). The terms of TrueMove’s and DPC’s concession will end in September 2013, while that of DTAC will expire in 2018.
TOT’s cellular concession held by Advanced Info Service (AIS) will end in 2015.
Both agencies will suffer revenue losses once the terms end, given that the concessions account for more than half of their total revenue.
The 2010 Frequency Allocation Law also obliges CAT and TOT to transfer all the concession revenue to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) within three years of the law taking effect. The NBTC will pass this revenue to state coffers.
CAT’s previous board approved in principle a plan to sell the network equipment used by TrueMove back to that firm after its concession ends.
After the concessions end, the private telecom operators have to transfer the network assets to the state telecom agencies under build-transfer-operate arrangements. TrueMove proposed to buy back its network equipment from CAT for Bt10 billion.
Anudith said he had ordered CAT to think carefully about this issue before making a final decision.
The chairman of CAT’s executive committee, Chaiyan Peungkiatpairote, said there were many options for dealing with the end of the concessions. These included setting up a subsidiary to manage network assets itself, selling the networks back to private telecom operators, and seeking joint investment opportunities with telecom operators. The committee is waiting for management to propose the final option.
In a separate matter, yesterday the chairman of the House of Representatives’ communications and telecommunications committee, Preechaphol Pongpanit, met with Anudith to follow up on the ICT Ministry’s progress in implementing the policies announced by the government in Parliament.
The committee recently met with the NBTC to learn about possible impacts on the industry from the watchdog’s plan to grant new spectrum licences and to reclaim spectra from state agencies for reallocation.
