CAT, TOT told to draft plan for interim service

NBTC commissioner Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn said the committee decided to attach this additional condition to the existing 20-year licences of both state agencies and both would be immediately obligated to follow this administrative order.
He said the move was aimed at plugging possible loopholes whereby TOT and CAT might seek to extend the terms of the concessions, and at preventing any problems stemming from the concessions’ expiry.
The interim measures should also be in line with those the NBTC will introduce soon related to the approaching expiration of all CAT and TOT concessions, which are being replaced by a licensing regime under the commission.
The concessions of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co (DPC) under CAT will end on September 15, while that of Advanced Info Service under TOT will expire in 2015 and that of Total Access Communication (DTAC) under CAT will end in 2018.
As part of the upcoming NBTC measures, which will be published in the Royal Gazette soon, the commission has allowed CAT, TrueMove and DPC to seek ways to continue serving the 17 million customers of TrueMove and DPC jointly after their concessions expire for one more year.
However, CAT notified the NBTC last week that this plan should be revoked, as it contradicts the regulations governing its concessions stating that after they expire, all customers must be transferred to CAT, not to the private companies holding the concessions.
Earlier a CAT source said most members of the state telecom agency’s board agreed that it should sue the NBTC over this plan. And CAT chief executive officer Kitisak Sriprasert has said that if his agency declined to take any action on this issue, it would risk facing the charge of negligence of duty.
He affirmed that the customers of TrueMove and DPC would not be affected by any legal action against the NBTC plan, as CAT would seek agreements with both operators.