CAT nods to revision of 3G contract
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CAT Telecom's board this week acknowledged that the state agency will have to revise its contracts with True Corp on third-generation cellular service to make them fully compliant with the Frequency Allocation Law.
Board director Sompong Pokasem said it had also ordered management to report to it on progress in the contract revision at every board meeting, as it wants to follow this crucial issue closely.
CAT chief executive officer Kitisak Sriprasert said the state agency had talked with True and they would start discussing revisions to the contracts next week.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s telecom committee is expected to issue the official order to CAT today to revise the contracts.
This follows the NBTC telecom committee’s approval last week of the conclusions of its subcommittee probing the legality of the contracts that the committee should order CAT to revise them to make them fully comply with Article 46 (2) of the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law. According to its probe, CAT appears not to have complete management control over its own 850-megahertz spectrum used under the partnership.
The frequency law prohibits NBTC licence holders such as CAT and TOT from allowing third parties to control their spectrum management. True has said repeatedly that it is willing to amend the contracts jointly with CAT to end any legal doubts.
CAT’s board also asked the state agency to examine whether doubts over the legality of BFKT (Thailand)’s network-leasing operation will affect CAT’s plan to buy BFKT’s network equipment, which uses high-speed packet access technology. BFKT, which is part of the True Group, has leased the HSPA network to CAT to generate 3G bandwidth under the partnership.
The NBTC’s telecom committee last week ordered its officials to scrutinise whether BFKT’s network lease to CAT breaches the Telecom Business Act by operating without an NBTC licence.
CAT is in talks with True on a possible purchase of the BFKT network equipment as part of the state agency’s plan to become a full network provider.
CAT and True’s two subsidiaries, Real Future and Real Move, signed deals in January last year to forge the partnership to provide 3G-850MHz service. Under the deals, BFKT of Real Future has leased the HSPA network equipment to CAT for 3G bandwidth wholesale and resale.
CAT has granted wholesale the 3G bandwidth to Real Move to provide service.
