Telecom regulator determines 'remedy period' amounts owed by TrueMove, DPC
The telecom committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday concluded that TrueMove will have to pass on Bt1.069 billion in revenue to the NBTC, and Digital Phone Co (DPC) Bt627 million, in compliance with rules governin
They have to make the payments within 30 days after the commission sends the order, but they can ask the committee to review this resolution, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said.Sources from TrueMove and DPC said both companies would ask the telecom committee to review the decision.
TrueMove is a subsidiary of True Corp, while DPC is a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service.
After their concessions ended, the NBTC permitted both companies to continue migrating customers who had failed to move to other networks for a year, a so-called remedy period. Any revenue for the operators, less expenses, during that period would have to be passed on to the state.
According to the NBTC, TrueMove made revenue of Bt3.634 billion during the remedy period with expenses of Bt2.564 billion, while DPC made revenue of Bt1.153 billion with expenses of Bt525 million. These revenue figures cover only the period from September 16, 2013, to July 17, 2014. The NBTC concluded that TrueMove has to pay Bt1.069 billion and DPC Bt627 million.
Earlier TrueMove insisted that it had suffered a loss from its operations during the remedy period from launching campaigns to migrate customers to other networks.
Currently TrueMove still has about 700,000 subscribers in the network, while DPC has about 1,000 users.
The amount they have to pay to the NBTC does not include fees CAT Telecom asked them to pay for leasing its transmission network during the remedy period. CAT, which owned TrueMove’s concession, recently asked TrueMove to pay it Bt12 billion for utilising the transmission network. TrueMove has insisted that it will pay only Bt700 million to CAT.
The NBTC is set to reallocate TrueMove’s and DPC’s bandwidth on the 1,800-megahertz spectrum via auction in November.
