AIS and DTAC no longer leaders in cellular services
ADVANCED Info Service (AIS)'s and Total Access Communication (DTAC)'s retail cellular services are no longer classified as significant market players (SMPs) under the new definitions approved by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission
The committee approved the new SMP definitions for five telecom-service categories yesterday. Each category is divided into wholesale and retail segments. Those classified as SMPs will be subject to stricter rules and price caps.
Under the previous definitions, the cellular business groups of AIS and DTAC were classified as SMPs, as their market shares both exceeded 25 per cent. The previous definitions did not divide the telecom market into retail and wholesale and did not take into account market competition, unlike the new definitions.
However, under the new definitions, AIS, DTAC, True, CAT Telecom and TOT are all classified as SMPs in the wholesale cellular-service business.
This cellular wholesale category will be regulated by the NBTC reference rate of the mobile-phone network interconnection fee, which now is 45 satang per minute but will be lowered to 34 satang per minute in August. This fee is what the networks of outgoing calls pay to the networks of the call recipients.
Under the new and previous definitions, only True’s fixed broadband Internet service is classified as an SMP in the retail market, with 38.69 per cent of the market.
True, TOT, CAT, and Triple T Broadband are classified as SMPs in the wholesale fixed broadband Internet service segment.
