Five unusual practices found in CAT 3G deals, Anudith

At the committee’s announcement of its final probe result on the deal’s legality yesterday, ICT minister Anudith Nakornthap said both CAT and True group could continue to do business under the deals.
He added that the probe focused on how the deals were made and who got involved, not on the 3G service deals themselves.
True sent a release to the press yesterday saying it declined to comment on the committee’s conclusion but reaffirmed the deals were made in full compliance with the law and regulations.
It said the committee's conclusion did not have any impact on the deals and the offering of the TrueMove H service.
True subsidiary Real Move, which provides the 3G service under the TrueMove H brand, now has around one million users.
True’s share price yesterday closed at Bt3.64, down 2.2 per cent.
In its final conclusion on the deal’s legality, the ICT ministry’s committee found five unusual practices in the way the CAT-True 3G partnership deals were developed.
The committee said it was possible political interference resulted in CAT failing to take over Hutchison Telecom’s business in Thailand and paved the way for True group to do so instead.
CAT’s proposal to Cabinet on December 2010 that the Code Division Multiple Access cellular service should be discontinued and the 3G wholesale-resale service developed, did not comply with PM’s Office regulations on the investments with state agencies.
CAT also failed to comply with the then Cabinet’s order that CAT had to consult with state agencies first before launching the 3G service. CAT has asked the ministry to approve its plan to spend Bt12 billion to roll out telecom facilities to enhance its 3G service without making it comply with the 1992 Public-Private Joint Venture Law first. Anudith said he would have supported this plan if CAT had proceeded according to the law.
Anudith will announce in a few days which state agencies he will send the probe conclusion to for further investigation. They could include the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the National Anti-Corruption Commis-sion (NACC) – which has already scrutinised the deal’s legality. He will also conclude what CAT should do to remedy the situation to be in line with the committee’s conclusion.
He strongly denied any conclusion would be politically motivated to attack the previous government.
The Pheu Thai Party, then in opposition, also launched a censure debate against the previous ICT minister Chuti Krairiksh over the legitimacy of the deals.
The Senate's good governance and anti-corruption committee concluded last month that the deals may have breached the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law. It forwarded its conclusion to the NACC and the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munication Commission.
The NBTC will appoint a panel to scrutinise the deals by focusing on whether the deals violated Article 46 (2) of the frequency allocation law, which prohibits licence holders like CAT and TOT from transferring the right to use their spectra to other parties, to act on their behalf.