NBTC to look at expenses of TrueMove, Digital
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THE National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission will |convene a meeting of its working committee next week to finalise how to tally the expenditure TrueMove and Digital Phone Co incurred for providing cellular services after their concessions
NBTC commissioner Prasert Silphiphat said that the watchdog wanted to finalise the issue as soon as possible to pave the way for the auction of the operators’ 1,800MHz spectrum bands.
The regulator is waiting for the junta’s nod to allow it to hold the auction.
The NBTC telecom committee recently assigned Prasert to look into the matter as the working committee and both companies have yet to reach an agreement on what items were expenses.
This followed the NBTC requirement that the operators have to pass on revenue, after deducting expenses for the past two years, to the state coffers.
Currently TrueMove has around 2 million subscribers.
According to the NBTC, TrueMove had informed it that its revenue for the period September 2013 to September 2014 is Bt6 billion, but it would be suffering a loss after deduction of expenses.
After the operators’ concessions expired, the NBTC permitted them to continue serving customers who had failed to move to other networks for a year, the so-called remedy period.
Once the remedy period ends, the NBTC will reallocate their 1,800MHz spectrum bands via auction.
And at the end of that period they have to transfer their revenue after expenses to the state coffers.
The NBTC set up the working com-|mittee to determine legitimate expense items.
But last July, the NBTC extended the remedy period for both operators for another year after the National Council for Peace and Order ordered the watchdog to suspend its plan to auction the 1,800MHz bands for 12 months.
