NBTC turns down 168's request for 4m numbers

NBTC commissioner Prawit Leesatapornwongsa said the committee rejected 168 Communi-cation’s request because the company had no clear strategy to secure targeted users, despite claiming it did. The committee asked the company to submit a new business plan.
168 Communication is a mobile virtual network operator formerly known as 365 Communication, which at the time partnered with TOT 3G. It was re-launched as 168 Communication last month with new shareholders. It now partners with CAT Telecom.
The company’s chief executive officer, Natee Panichchewa, said he had not heard about the request being rejected, adding that the process was ongoing.
“We still have enough numbers for the operation. The numbers are from CAT,” said Natee, who declined to reveal the figure.
An NBTC source said that 168 Communication had 60,000 numbers when it was 365 Communication and had around 4,000 users now.
According to the NBTC’s numbering regulation, it will assign new numbers to an existing operator by analysing the operator’s current record. The source added that the telecom committee also raised questions about 365 Communi-cation’s new structure.
Natee told the committee that 365 Communication had increased its registered capital from Bt30 million to Bt500 million and his group owned 50 per cent of the company.
According to its official registration paper, it still has Bt30 million registered capital.
The committee also told 168 Communication to ask CAT for more numbers. But a CAT source said the state agency could not assign more numbers to 168 because it had 1.5 million numbers and they were being used under the MY brand, which had 600,000 subscribers. Earlier 168 Communication announced its plan to invest Bt3 billion on business development, targeting 1 million subscribers by mid-2016.