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Slow transfers irk mobile consumers
More than a thousand calls poured in to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission from Friday to Tuesday to complain about delays in the transfer of mobile-phone numbers to other networks.
The NBTC said 1,432 callers complained that their transfer requests had not been completed within the commission’s three-day limit for number-portability service.
Of the total, 1,062 calls were from Advanced Info Service (AIS) subscribers who said they had been unable to transfer their numbers to other operators, mainly TrueMove H, 280 calls were from Total Access Communication (DTAC) subscribers, and 57 were from True Move H users.
Thirty-two of the callers, mostly AIS subscribers, filed |official complaints with the NBTC.
On February 10, Real Move, a subsidiary of True Corp, asked the NBTC to help solve such cases for TrueMove H. It claimed that 101,468 users between January 29 and February 5 had asked to be transferred to TrueMove H but were unable to do so.
It said the old networks of these users did not send the relevant information to TrueMove H to enable number portability.
The portability process reportedly got much more difficult after True launched a campaign this month to allow transfers to its network at 7-Eleven convenience stores around the country.
AIS and DTAC together recently asked the NBTC to look into whether handling this process at 7-Eleven shops complied with the portability-service regulations.
The NBTC office reportedly took the view that phone-service transfers at 7-Eleven stores were permissible but True had to send formal papers about the service to those customers.
According to the NBTC, 200,000 subscribers of all telecom operators are waiting to be transferred to different networks.
The NBTC telecom committee is expected to consider the issue today.
CTH to run Paramount Channel
Viacom is bringing Paramount, a 24-hour, high-definition movie channel, to Thailand.
The move is part of its launch of one of its global anchor brands in Asia, building on the network’s international success in Spain, France, Russia, Romania, Hungary, Latin America and Italy.
Viacom International Media Networks has secured its first distribution deal in Asia with CTH, a major pay-TV operator in Thailand, giving CTH linear over-the-top (OTT) and linear TV Everywhere streaming rights in Thailand.
The movie channel will start airing on CTH’s traditional satellite and OTT streaming service in May.
The agreement also includes a new licensing deal for MTV Thailand to be moved over to CTH, effective as of Monday.
