CAT to go to court over infrastructure sharing regulations

Chief executive officer Kittisak Sriprasert said yesterday that he would file a complaint to the Central Administrative Court as the regulations, which were published in the Royal Gazette on Monday, could hamper the state enterprise’s operation. 

Recently Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the telecom committee under the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said the watchdog was ready to defend itself in court. 

The regulations’ definition of “telecom operators” that can pursue infrastructure sharing includes the holders of state telecom concessions, which CAT views as unfair, as some of the holders still have unsettled network-ownership conflicts with CAT.

It has threatened to sue the NBTC since the regulations were at the drafting stage. It wanted the commission to specify that private cellular concession holders that want to lease out network assets that they have yet to transfer to CAT, or which are still the subject of arbitration over ownership, must request CAT’s consent before sharing network-rental revenue with the agency.

However, the telecom committee did not follow CAT’s request. 

TrueMove, Digital Phone Co and Total Access Communication are still engaged in a dispute with CAT over ownership of cellular towers, of which DTAC has about 10,500, TrueMove 8,500 and DPC 187.

Settapong told a seminar organised by the Telecommunications Association of Thailand on the infrastructure regulations that the NBTC tried its best to help all operators save costs by avoiding the establishment of redundant networks.

The regulations were also aimed at enabling the three 2.1-gigahertz licence holders to deploy their third-generation cellular networks nationwide as quickly as possible, he said.

A condition of their licence requires them to cover 50 per cent of the population within two years after obtaining the licence, which was granted last December, and 80 per cent within the following two years.