Cabinet to see TOT, CAT business plan

If approved by the Cabinet, TOT and CAT will flesh out the plans, ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap said yesterday.

They are the business plans for both to survive after the private concessions end, of which parts of the plans is that they aimed to be come the network providers.

CAT and TOT are expected to set up Tower Co business units next month to lease out their networks as part of their plans to become telecom network providers. The plans are critical for their survival after their cellular concessions to private providers expire in the near future.

However, CAT is still in arbitration over telecom network ownership. It is in talks with Digital Phone Co (DPC), Total Access Communication (DTAC) and TrueMove to solve the dispute.

The negotiations show signs of progress, Anudith said.

DPC has transferred only 180 base stations nationwide to CAT out of its total of 2,000, while DTAC has transferred just 1,100 out of 12,000. TrueMove has yet to transfer any of its 8,000 base stations.

The concessions of DPC and TrueMove end in September next year and DTAC’s in 2018.

Their detailed business plans must serve the government’s policy of promoting equal broadband access and support infrastructure sharing by all telecom operators to save on network investment, he said.

The infrastructure-sharing picture will be clearer when the bid winners of the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum bands start setting up their third-generation telecom networks, as they will also utilise existing state-agency networks to speed up the work.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission will open bidding for the spectrum on October 16. The watchdog has also drafted regulations to promote infrastructure sharing between incumbent operators and future 3G licence holders to ensure quick deployment of the wireless-broadband networks.