Contribution to rural
The contribution to the rural telecom service development fund is likely to drop to 3 per cent of a telecom licence holder's gross revenue from the present 4 per cent under revisions to Universal Service Obligation regulations.
Sukit Khamasundara, a member of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said yesterday that the NBTC is wrapping up the USO regulations for 2012-16 after putting the draft to a public hearing last month.
The new regulations are expected to go into effect this quarter.
Under the existing USO regulations, only Type-2 and Type-3 licence-holders have to pay 4 per cent of their revenue to the USO fund if they decline to develop telecom services in remote areas.
The USO fund will hire firms to develop telecom services in remote areas.
Under the draft regulations, the USO levy will apply to all three types of licence-holders.
Their USO contributions will be passed to the NBTC’s fund for research and development of broadcasting and telecom industries for public benefit. The fund will call an auction among telecom operators to develop telecom services for the NBTC in remote areas.
Licence-holders with revenue of Bt20 million or less do not have to pay into the fund, which currently has Bt2.9 billion. The watchdog is expected to collect Bt5 billion this year for the fund.
In the future, the NBTC might need less USO contributions when wireless broadband networks such as 3G networks prevail more nationwide and can cover the country’s remote areas.
The watchdog plans to pilot USO projects in two provinces at a cost of Bt250 million each. The two will be selected from Phitsanulok, Nong Khai and Sakhon Nakhon.
The USO draft calls for coverage of 99 per cent of the population with voice services and 80 per cent with broadband Internet within five years.
