Legal questions still surround IDD plans

Legal questions still surround IDD plans
Bangkok Post (9 October 2007)

Legal concerns are preventing the state telecom enterprise TOT from entering into a revenue-sharing agreement with Advanced Info Service for the latter's international direct dialling (IDD) service. TOT is concerned that a revenue agreement could violate the joint public-private investment law, which requires cabinet scrutiny and approval of ventures worth more than one billion baht. AIS, the country's largest mobile operator with more than 20 million customers, offers the IDD service through a subsidiary, AIN Globalcomm Co. AIN rents its parent's network to provide international calling for AIS customers. TOT deputy president Kittipong Taemeyapradit said that AIS had proposed negotiating revenue sharing on IDD but TOT wanted a legal interpretation first from the Council of State, the government's legal advisory body. If the service is covered by the joint investment law, then the cabinet needed to approve any revenue-sharing agreement, he said. Wichien Mektrakarn, the president of AIS, said he did not think the IDD service required an amendment to the concession the company holds from TOT. If the service faced a legal handicap, he said that AIS was willing to dilute its holding in AIN so that any deal would not relate directly to AIS's existing concession. Shin Corporation chief executive Somprasong Boonyachai said AIN was a new core business of the Shin group in addition to AIS and Shin Satellite. AIN Globalcomm is 100% held by AIS. It has 200 million baht in registered capital and holds a type 2 licence for IDD services.