Telecom panel to mull new formula for calculating TrueMove, DPC expenses

 

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of NBTC, said he would propose the new model for the telecom committee’s consideration. He added that the NBTC panel tasked to examine their costs should verify only their regulatory expenses, such as spectrum use and network operation, not all the costs declared by the companies.

He declined to say whether the new formula would result in higher or lower cost figures for the two companies. 

If the committee approves his proposed formula, he will ask the NBTC panel tasked to calculate the costs to complete its work within one month. 

Earlier this panel concluded that TrueMove had to pass Bt1.6 billion in revenue to the NBTC in compliance with the rules governing its operations after its concession expired in September 2013. For DPC, the figure was Bt600 million. However, both companies have insisted that they did not make any revenue but actually suffered losses during the so-called one-year remedy period.

After their concessions expired, the NBTC permitted both operators to continue migrating customers who had failed to move to other networks for a year. If they made revenue during this remedy period, they would have to pass in on, after deducting expenses, to the state.

Currently TrueMove still has about 700,000 subscribers in the network, while DPC has around 1,000. 

The NBTC was set to reallocate bandwidth held by the two telecoms on the 1,800-megahertz spectrum via auction after their concessions ended in September 2013.

 Last July, the NBTC had to extend the remedy period for both operators for another year after the military’s ruling National Council for Peace and Order ordered the commission to suspend its plan to auction the 1,800MHz bands for 12 months. 

In March the ad hoc National Digital Economy Committee gave the nod to NBTC to auction the 1,800MHz spectrum late this year.