TOT pushed for decision on AIS case

He told TOT, which owns the AIS concession, that at least one action must be taken before the concession ends on September 30 and that the state agency had to keep reporting to him on the progress.

The Cabinet on Tuesday gave approval for the ministry to urge TOT to proceed with the case according to the verdict by the Supreme Court in its 2010 ruling finding former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of abuse of power.

AIS is the flagship of InTouch Holdings, formerly known as Shin Corp, which was founded by the Shinawatra family.

The TOT board met on Wednesday to consider how to proceed with the AIS case but could not reach any conclusion. It will hold another meeting on the case today.

On Tuesday, AIS said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that it had not received any notification from TOT or any other state agencies that they would seek compensation from AIS as reported by local newspapers.

"AIS has fully complied with the terms of its agreement with TOT. The amendments were in compliance with the law and the practice of other operators’ conduct with the state agencies," it said in the statement.

The TOT board last month acknowledged the conclusion of the public-private joint-venture panel that the six amendments made to the AIS concession in the past were unlawful and that the state telecom agency should seek compensation.

TOT granted a 25-year concession to AIS, which will expire on September 30.

The highlighted amendment is the sixth one made in May 2001 during the Thaksin administration when TOT lowered the concession fee for AIS’s prepaid service from 25-35 per cent to a flat 20 per cent until the end of the concession. The case was cited by the Supreme Court in its 2010 ruling finding Thaksin guilty of abuse of power.

Last December, the National Anti-Corruption Commission also alleged that some TOT former top executives were guilty of involvement in this case.

Meanwhile, Uttama has also pressured TOT to submit its business plan on how it expects to survive after the AIS concession expires. TOT has sought the ministry’s help to keep telecom bandwidth on the 900-megahertz spectrum after the concession ends.

"TOT has many spectra [on which] to operate telecom services. It should not hold on to the 900MHz spectrum. It has to consider how to survive with a new business plan and without the 900MHz spectrum," Uttama said.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is scheduled to auction licences on the 1,800MHz spectrum on November 11 and has set a tentative date to auction 900MHz licences on December 15.

Uttama said the ICT Ministry would submit for the Cabinet’s consideration next week CAT Telecom’s plan to hand 5MHz of a currently idle 25MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum to the NBTC for auction.

CAT granted 50MHz of 1,800MHz to Total Access Communication, which uses only half to provide cellular service. CAT and DTAC jointly agreed to hand 5MHz of the idle 25MHz bandwidth to NBTC for auction.

The NBTC originally planned to call bids for the combined 25MHz of 1,800MHz of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co on November 11, featuring two licences, each with 12.5MHz.

If CAT hands over DTAC’s 5MHz of 1,800MHz, the NBTC would have a total of 30MHz of the spectrum for auction, which would feature two licences with 15MHz each.

The NBTC has set September 25 as the deadline for CAT to hand over this 5MHz bandwidth. If CAT fails to do so, the NBTC will revert to the original auction plan of auctioning only 25MHz of this spectrum.