CAT hopes to outsource oversight of customers to TrueMove, DPC after their concessions end
CAT Telecom will outsource to TrueMove and Digital Phone Co (DPC) the overseeing of their own customers, should the regulator permit the state agency to take care of these subscribers after the companies' concessions end in mid-September.
CAT chief executive officer Kitisak Sriprasert recently said CAT would have to take this course of action as it had no experience in managing such a massive number of customers.
However, it would learn how to do so during the outsourcing period, he added.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) panel tasked with preparing for the end of the TrueMove-DPC concessions will decide in the next two months which party will be assigned to take care of the combined 18 million subscribers of the two companies for a one-year transitional period.
After the concessions expire, their network assets will be transferred to CAT.
A source at the state agency said that if the NBTC permitted CAT to oversee these customers, it would hold urgent talks with TrueMove on the outsourcing fee it would pay to the company for overseeing the customers on CAT’s behalf.
CAT earlier estimated that about 10 million of TrueMove’s 17 million customers would not have migrated to another network by mid-September.
TrueMove is hopeful that the NBTC will permit the company to continue to oversee its own customers during the one-year transitional period, the source added.
Kitisak said CAT had also told TrueMove not to rush to migrate its customers to other networks.
The NBTC panel refers to Article 47 of the Constitution and the 2010 Frequency Allocation Act in setting the transitional period to protect consumers. The charter article states that spectrum allocation by the regulator must be based on the public’s maximum interest.
The NBTC’s telecom committee insists the transitional period does not amount to an extension of the companies’ concession terms, nor will a spectrum licence be issued to the company or agency that will be assigned to take care of TrueMove and DPC customers during the period.
The key goal is to prevent service disruption, and the assigned party will be prohibited from acquiring new customers and must support the TrueMove-DPC customers in switching to other networks.
Importantly, it will have to collect a service fee at the same rate as TrueMove and DPC, and provide the same level of service quality.
The NBTC will reclaim the 1,800-megahertz bands from TrueMove and DPC for auction, which is now expected to take place late next year.
