Panel nods to Bt0.99/min cap on mobile voice service
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's telecom committee has approved the draft of regulations capping average airtime tariffs for mobile-phone voice service at 99 satang per minute.
The committee will submit the draft for the NBTC board’s approval on March 14 before having them published in the Royal Gazette.
Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the NBTC telecom committee, said that under the regulations, some new promotional packages could charge, for example, Bt2 for the first three minutes of a call, as that would not average out at more than 99 satang per minute but only about 66 satang.
The regulations will be applied only to the so-called significant market players – cellular operators with market share of more than 25 per cent. Advanced Info Service and Total Access Communication (DTAC) were classified as SMPs in the mobile-phone-service segment last year by the NBTC’s predecessor, |the National Telecommunications Commission.
Settapong said the committee would also examine whether other cellular operators could be classified as SMPs.
Commissioner Prawit Leesata-pornwongsa said the committee had assigned the NBTC office to consider whether the watchdog should combine the market share of TrueMove and Real Move, as both are subsidiaries of True Corp, when considering which operators are SMPs.
The SMPs should also offer their customers an optional package of a flat rate of 99 satang per minute, Settapong added.
Prawit said that once the regulations took effect, new promotional call packages the SMPs launch will have to comply with the new rules. Existing packages with rates over 99 satang per minute can continue until December 31.
After the New Year, these packages will have to be adjusted to comply with the new regulations.
Currently some packages charge over Bt1 for the first minute and a lower rate for subsequent minutes.
