CAT seeks to charge True, DPC Bt13.78 bn to lease network
CAT TELECOM has proposed to charge Bt13.78 billion in total rent for TrueMove and Digital Phone Co to lease its network to serve their customers for one more year after the operators' concessions expired on September 15.
TrueMove would pay Bt11.5 billion and DPC Bt2.28 billion.
The Telecom Committee is expected to consider the proposal this week. Its five-member working group will also review all the expenses to be incurred by TrueMove, DPC and CAT in serving TrueMove-DPC customers during this one-year period.
DPC estimates its interim expenses at Bt370 million per month, of which Bt300 million is for administration. DPC has about 70,000 subscribers. DPC’s parent, Advanced Info Service (AIS), lets some 3 million of its subscribers roam on DPC’s network.
DPC has informed the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission that it has asked AIS to encourage the 3 million roamers to gradually use other networks. DPC plans to port its own users to AIS group’s cellular networks or other networks with their consent.
TrueMove did not provide any cost estimates to the NBTC. It just submitted details on four cost categories. The first is for the number fee and the second is for network interconnection, network roaming and electricity and water usage.
The third is for management, comprising marketing, customer relationship management and billing. The last one is for quality services.
TrueMove also told the NBTC that it will migrate its 17 million subscribers to Real Move and Real Future, which are cellular operators in the same True group, via attractive campaigns.
TrueMove has reported 17.7 million users as of July 31, of whom 17.4 million were prepaid and 349,156 post-paid.
