CAT expects to end disputes with DTAC, TrueMove by 3rd quarter, set up Telecom Tower Co
CAT Telecom is expected to finish establishing Telecom Tower Company by the third quarter to manage telecommunications towers currently under its concessions after those contracts expire, said Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana, acting president of the state a
By that time, CAT aims to settle the disputes on ownership of telecom towers with its concession holders Total Access Communication (DTAC) and TrueMove.
CAT expects to have 22,000 towers in the Telecom Tower Co, of which around 12,000 will be transferred from DTAC and 8,000 from TrueMove. CAT already has the remaining 2,000.
Sanpachai said after a CAT board meeting on Monday that the board had approved talks with DTAC and TrueMove to settle disputes under the concessions, including those on the ownership of telecom towers.
He said that under the concession principle, CAT is the owner of all of the towers used by the concession holders.
DTAC recently proposed two optional models for a possible partnership with CAT in order to solve the tower dispute. Both models are currently before the Central Administrative Court.
The first option is that CAT converts the disputed towers into shares in DTAC, but the CAT board disagrees with this idea.
The second option is that CAT set up a joint venture with DTAC to manage the tower networks together. DTAC would also transfer the cellular network it operates under a National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission licence to this joint venture. Both CAT and DTAC would own shares in the venture according to the proportional value of their assets in the network.
Sanpachai said DTAC and CAT had separately hired consultants to evaluate the disputed telecom towers with a view to forming a joint venture.
Meanwhile, TrueMove has asked CAT to sell the towers to the private firm’s telecom infrastructure fund to end their dispute.
Sanpachai said CAT and TrueMove would jointly hire a consultant to appraise the towers.
CAT and DTAC are engaged in a legal ownership battle over 10,419 telecom towers under that concession, while CAT and TrueMove are wrangling over 8,031 towers.
The other state telecom agency, TOT, recently announced plans to talk with Advanced Info Service to settle the ownership dispute over AIS’s cellular network under its concession with TOT.
TOT and AIS have sent eight disputes to arbitration, including one over the ownership of the 13,198 towers installed under the build-transfer-operate terms of the concession.
The junta-appointed State Enterprise Policy Commission recently resolved for both TOT and CAT to settle their disputes with their concession holders, and work out how the two state enterprises can jointly maximise their telecommunications-tower infrastructure.
In a separate matter, the CAT board on Monday ordered the state agency to remind MCOT of the agreement they entered into in 2010 to jointly develop the 2.6-gigahertz spectrum to provide fourth-generation wireless service. So far, MCOT has yet to make any move to join with CAT on the matter.
