True seeks talks with CAT on serving cellular customers after concession ends
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True Corp is ready to talk with CAT Telecom about collaborating on serving TrueMove's cellular customers after TrueMove's concession ends on September 15, True chief executive officer Suphachai Chearavanont says.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) last Wednesday approved a draft plan for TrueMove and Digital Phone Co (DPC) to join with CAT to continue taking care of their more than 17 million subscribers for a one-year period after their concessions with CAT expire next month.
TrueMove has some 17 million subscribers, while DPC, a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service (AIS), has about 80,000.
Suphachai is confident that True could transfer all TrueMove subscribers to other networks within one year. True’s cellular flagships Real Move and Real Future are ready to serve these subscribers if they switch networks, he said.
The five cellular operators – AIS, Total Access Communication, TrueMove, CAT and TOT – have the combined capacity to transfer 300,000 subscribers per day.
The NBTC’s decision last week prompted CAT to consider mounting a legal challenge against this plan, citing an apparent contradiction with the concessions, which require all subscribers to be transferred to CAT upon expiration.
But the draft plan would allow both cellular operators to continue overseeing customers after their concessions end.
