AIS will focus on TOT talks

In a related matter, the TOT board last week resolved to ask the state agency to request that the Office of Attorney-General help in filing a lawsuit by September 30 against former TOT president Sutham Malila and former vice president Olarn Pientham. Both of them were alleged by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) last December to have been involved in the AIS concession amendments.
Somchai said the TOT should consider the concession amendment problem and the possible partnership as two separate issues.
From a legal perspective, the NACC case will not affect AIS, he added.
Somchai said the government should give AIS an opportunity to clarify the concession amendment case. AIS is not the only company for which the concession was amended, he said, adding that the concessions of Total Access Communication and TrueMove have also been amended in the past for a variety of reasons.
The Cabinet on Tuesday gave the Information and Communications Technology Ministry the green light to urge TOT to proceed according to the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling finding fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra guilty of abuse of power.
The court cited several pieces of evidence, including some of the AIS concession amendments, in its ruling of Thaksin’s case.

AIS, which holds the TOT concession, was founded by the Shinawatras. Its concession expires at the end of this month. On Wednesday, AIS made a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand in which it said the amendments were in compliance with the law and highlighted the conduct of other operators in their dealings with state agencies.
Somchai said AIS was legally prepared to cope with this case but he believes it will take time before it reaches its conclusion.
“We’re not going to panic about the situation and will keep providing our employees with updates,” he said.
The attempt to clear up the AIS concession-amendment problem has dragged on for years. After the court ruled against Thaksin, the Article 22 panel was set up under the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration to rectify the concession amendments and seek compensation from AIS. But still nothing happened.
Somchai said the committee founded by the ICT Ministry during the administrations of both Surayuth Chulanont and Abhisit scrutinised the AIS concession amendments and found nothing wrong.
For the possible partnership with TOT, Somchai said the AIS made a proposal to expand the mobile network for the state agency to wholesale spectrum bandwidth to AIS and other interested companies.
AIS has given equal importance to its existing mobile phone service and the service to be developed under TOT partnership, he added.
Somchai declined to comment on the report that the state agency would gain Bt4.5 billion per year from the partnership over a 10-year period.
TOT and AIS are also in talks on the plan to establish a 51:49 per cent joint venture to manage the telecom towers under the concession. It is part of a move to settle their ownership dispute over the towers.
Somchai said AIS assigned its subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) to bid for both the 1800MHz and the 900 MHz licences.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said recently that despite the controversy surrounding its AIS concession amendment, AWN could still enter the bidding as they are separate entities.
While AIS rivals already launched the 4G service last year, Somchai is confident AIS would be able to quickly catch up with them when it successfully acquires new spectrum bandwidth.