New CAT plea on contract amendments
CAT Telecom has asked the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to extend the deadline for its submission of the amended version of its 3G partnership contracts with True Corp for another 30 days. The deadline, which had already b
Hansa Chevapurke, CAT senior executive vice president for legal and business partners, said the two parties had completed their joint amendment of the contracts in terms of legal aspects. But CAT still needs a little more time to clarify with True the costs arising from the amendments.
For example, in the amended contracts, the responsibility for the cost of some network operations and some maintenance will shift to CAT, from True in the original contracts. If these figures are not made clear, problems could arise later.
It is the second time CAT has requested a deadline extension from the NBTC on this matter. The first deadline was September 5. The NBTC telecom committee will have to consider whether it will grant CAT’s request again this time.
Once complete, CAT will submit the amended contract to its board for consideration and then to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry and the Cabinet.
In June, the NBTC ordered CAT and True jointly to revise their network-leasing contracts and those related to wholesaling and resale of bandwidth for third-generation cellular service. The order followed the conclusion of the commission’s subcommittee probing the contracts that six items appeared to breach the 2010 Frequency Allocation Act.
Article 46 (2) of the law prohibits NBTC licence holders CAT and TOT from allowing a third party to have full control of their spectrum management.
CAT and True subsidiaries Real Future and Real Move signed the deals in January 2011 to forge a partnership to provide 3G wireless broadband service on the 850-megahertz spectrum. BFKT (Thailand) of Real Future leased 3G equipment to CAT, which offered the 3G bandwidth to Real Move to provide the service. The deals brought criticism and a series of probes by state authorities over their doubtful legality.
The NBTC subcommittee recommended that CAT revise the six flawed items in these contracts jointly with True to ensure that the state agency had full management control of its spectrum.
