AIS’s 370,000 subscribers to 2G service to be disconnected on Thursday
THE 370,000 subscribers to Advanced Info Service’s second-generation cellular service will be disconnected after midnight June 30, after the payment today of the first instalment by its subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network of the upfront fee on its 900MHz
AIS has tried to move all of its customers using its 900-megahertz network to the AWN network since before its concession under TOT expired last September, but around 370,000 2G subscribers are still on it.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommu-nications Commission, said yesterday that today AWN would pay the Bt8.04-billion first instalment of the upfront fee and place the required bank guarantee for the remaining instalments. Then the telecom committee will meet today to award the 15-year licence to AWN. The licence will be in effect from this Friday, July 1.
This means the 900MHz band used previously by AIS under the TOT concession will be awarded to AWN, and therefore all 370,000 of the 2G users on that band will be disconnected after midnight June 30.
After the service’s disconnection, AIS will have to return |26 million mobile-phone |numbers to the NBTC for reallocation.
The service shutdown on Thursday night is according to a deadline set for AIS by the military’s ruling National Council for Peace and Order.
AIS originally was supposed |to shut down the 2G service under the concession on March 15 according to an NBTC order, but the company sought an injunction from the Central Administrative Court to defer the shutdown.
The court in March allowed AIS to extend the deadline to April 14.
Later the NCPO allowed AIS to extend the deadline further to June 30.
However, there are still a few million AWN users who roam with the AIS 2G-900MHz network under TOT concession.
TOT president Monchai Noosong said the state agency would talk with AIS before Thursday on how they should proceed next regarding this network.
