NBTC okays draft regulations on players

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) on Wednesday approved the draft of new regulations to prevent foreign dominance of local telecom operators, which will be put for public hearing soon.

The new regulations will be enacted under the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law and 2001 Telecom Business Act. The regulations will be used to support the NBTC’s planned auction of the 3G-2.1GHz spectrum licences around October.

The term “dominance” in the draft means the direct or indirect control or influence on local telecom operators by foreigners in determining their business policies, management, operation, and appointments of directors to top executives, which can affect their operation. 

The dominance is done via share ownership with at least half of the total voting rights, the control of majority voting rights of shareholders, and the power to appoint or remove at least half of total board directors.

Unlike the existing regulations, the draft of the new regulations does not contain the clause requiring the watchdog to consult national security agencies about the suspected foreign dominance. The NBTC views that the foreign dominance issue is not a national security issue.

The new draft contains in the appendix eight ways of foreign dominance the operators have to prevent, unlike the existing regulations, which contained 10 ways of foreign dominance. 

One of them is foreign dominance via the nominees of foreigners.

NBTC commissioner Suthiphon Taveechaiyagarn, in charge of NBTC regulation revision, said that the draft is not aimed at preventing foreigners working in top posts of local telecom operators but to prevent a foreign juristic entity from dominating the operators. The draft is aimed at helping telecom operators from risk of violating law governing foreign investment in Thailand.

The operators will also be required to devise measures to prevent foreign dominance by their own.

Suthiphon added that the NBTC already had consulted the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Trade Negotiations if these kind of regulations contravene Thailand’s commitments to international trade bodies. He said that the department had replied on April 23 that the NBTC’s existing regulations already made it clear by including the clause that the regulations could be enforced, except in the case where they contradict such commitments.

Like the existing regulations, the draft of the new regulations have attracted criticism from some telecom operators with foreign partners as it could discourage foreign investment and contradict the country’s commitment to international trade bodies. 

Supporters of the regulations are of the view that they are needed to protect the telecommunications spectra, which are a precious national resource, and of national interest.

Advanced Info Service and Total Access Communication have Singapore Telecom and Norway’s Telenor as strategic partner, respectively.