NBTC panel to decide next month who will oversee TrueMove, DPC customers
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Maximum 1 year for transition: telecom committee chair
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)’s telecom committee will specify next month which party will be assigned to oversee the 18 million customers of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co after their concessions end on September 15.
Committee chairman Settapong Malisuwan said yesterday that the timeframe for the migration of the customers to other networks should not exceed one year.
The committee also approved the draft preparations for taking over subscribers after concessions end. The authority that granted the concessions, which is CAT Telecom in this case, will have a role in leasing the existing network to a party to serve the customers for one year.
This party will not be allowed to acquire new subscribers but will have to encourage as much as possible the existing 18 million to transfer to other networks, and the party will shoulder the cost of those transfers.
It will have to propose to the NBTC how it intends to do this. This party will also have to pay the spectrum and licence fees to provide the service to the TrueMove-DPC customers.
The telecom committee met with CAT, TrueMove and DPC and related telecom operators to hear their opinions on its preparations for the expiration of the 1,800-megahertz concessions of TrueMove and DPC.
TrueMove and DPC have 17 million and 70,000 subscribers.
Chaiyan Peungkiatpairote, permanent secretary of the ICT Ministry, said CAT and the ministry would jointly draw up a remedy plan for these customers, which will be forwarded to the NBTC.
CAT chief executive Kitisak Sriprasert said CAT should be the one assigned to oversee the customers during the transition as it has a telecom business licence, while the private concession holders do not.
True Corp CEO Suphachai Chearavanont said the NBTC’s move shows that customers would be taken care of and the NBTC should provide more than a year for the transition. Wichian Mektrakarn, CEO of Advanced Info Service (AIS), DPC’s parent, said the transition should not exceed one year or the NBTC could face a legal challenge.
In planning this transition, the NBTC refers to Article 27 of the Frequency Allocation Law, which involves the protection of people’s right to freedom of communication via telecom services.
Wichian said the NBTC should auction the 1,800MHz bands of TrueMove and DPC and the 900MHz band of AIS at the same time before the end of next year. AIS’s concession from TOT expires in October 2015.
