Tread carefully on BFKT probe, panel told
The telecom regulator's office has told the watchdog's subcommittee probing the BFKT (Thailand) case to look for more evidence to avoid a possible countersuit.
Takorn Tantasit, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said yesterday that the NBTC’s office also gave more time to the subcommittee to conclude its probe – by October 27, instead of by tomorrow.
Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the NBTC’s telecom committee, said that according the subcommittee’s preliminary findings, BFKT of True Group appears to be operating its network rental service under the CAT Telecom-True Corp 3G partnership contracts by breaching Article 7 of the Telecom Business Act.
Since the case involves the Criminal Code, the NBTC has to be very careful in drawing a conclusion and more solid evidence is needed or it could risk a legal backlash, he said.
The subcommittee’s focus is on whether BFKT has operated the service under the CAT-True partnership on third-generation wireless broadband in violation of Article 7. The article says those operating a telecom business must have an NBTC telecom licence or they could face a fine or imprisonment under Article 67 of the same law.
CAT and True’s subsidiaries Real Future and Real Move signed the network rental and bandwidth wholesale-resale contracts in January 2011 to forge a partnership to provide 3G service on the 850-megahertz spectrum.
As part of the contracts, BFKT of Real Future has rented 3G equipment to CAT to wholesale and resell the state enterprise’s 3G bandwidth. CAT has offered the 3G bandwidth to Real Move to provide the service.
The contracts have provoked criticism and a series of probes by authorities over their doubtful legality.
The NBTC telecom committee has also ordered CAT and True to finish the joint amendment of their 3G service partnership contracts by October 3.
A CAT source said CAT and True had already decided how to revise these contracts to make them comply with the Frequency Allocation Law.
In June, the NBTC ordered CAT and True to make the joint contract revisions after its ruling that six items in the contracts did not comply with the Frequency Allocation Law, which bans NBTC licence-holders such as CAT and TOT from allowing a third party to have control over their spectrum management.
