NBTC drafts update definitions
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has drafted new definitions of telecom services and market dominants in a move to update regulations that have been used since 2009.
The highlight is the revised definition of “market dominant”. Besides market share, the NBTC now will consider other factors to determine whether a particular telecom operator could be classified as a “significant market player” (SMP), such as whether it has many subsidiaries operating in the same business and their combined market shares, their ability to access capital, and their technological advantage.
The current SMP definition focuses only on the market shares of operators in each of the service categories. Like the existing definition, the new one specifies that telecom operators with more than 40 per cent market share in each category will be classified as SMPs, while those with 25-40 per cent market share will be regarded as “potential SMPs”. Both of these operator types will be subject to the same set of specific regulations.
Under the existing criteria, Advanced Info Service (AIS) and Total Access Communication (DTAC) are deemed SMPs in the mobile-phone-service market as each of them has more than 25 per cent of the market.
TrueMove, with lower than 25-per-cent market share, is not regarded as an SMP, even though its sisters Real Future and Real Move are in the same cellular business.
Unlike TrueMove, AIS and DTAC have been subject to some specific NBTC regulations, such as the maximum airtime charge of 99 satang per minute.
