NBTC seeks fund for TOT’s fixed-line upgrade 

NBTC deputy secretary-general Korkij Danchaivichit said the commission’s telecom committee on Monday decided that this issue was important and could affect the NBTC’s numbering plan in the near future. 
Therefore, the upgrade by TOT needs support from the government.
The NBTC estimates that the cost of the upgrade to 10 digits should be only Bt6 billion, while TOT has put the cost at Bt21 billion.
The state telecommunications agency said it could not afford such a major investment while it is in a financial crisis. 
The NBTC believes that the upgrade to a 10-digit system should start within three years.
Recently TOT asked private telecom companies and the government to support the upgrade financially. It said mobile-phone operators would mainly benefit from the upgrade, as it would increase the availability of mobile-phone numbers. However, TOT’s fixed-line service will not gain any benefit, as it is a less popular service.
According to the NBTC’s new numbering plan, a 1 will be added to all fixed-line numbers after the first 0, followed by the existing numbers. For example, the existing number 02xxxxxxx will be changed to 012xxxxxxx.
As the owner of all fixed-line phone numbers nationwide under its concessions, TOT has to take the lead in the upgrade.
The switch to a 10-digit system will expand the total complement of mobile-phone numbers to 760 million from the current 260 million used and idle numbers, while the fixed-line numbers will double to 100 million. 
The mobile-phone operators hold a total of 184 million numbers, of which 100 million are being used. The NBTC now has only 72 million mobile-phone numbers available for allocation.
Currently TOT has 1.4 million fixed-line subscribers. This does not include 1.26 million users of True Corp and 384,000 users of TT&T, which operate under TOT concessions. 
True’s concession will end in October next year and TT&T’s in October 2018.