CAT submits revised plan

The Nation (23 November 2007)

CAT Telecom yesterday resubmitted the interconnection plan for the national telecommunications regulator's consideration in a move to come under new telecom regulations.
A source at CAT said the state agency wanted to comply with the regulations and if possible wants to stop paying the access charge to TOT.

CAT had recently submitted the interconnection plan or the so-called reference interconnection offering (RIO) for the approval of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) but the regulator asked it to add more details. CAT resubmitted the RIO for the NTC's consideration yesterday.

The telecom operators need the NTC's approval for their RIO, which outlines the terms and conditions of the interconnection details, before they can negotiate with the other operators to forge bilateral interconnection-charge deals.

The interconnection-charge regulations will see the telecom operators share voice and data revenue between the networks involved in the calls on a fair basis.
Advanced Info Service, DTAC and True Move forged bilateral interconnection charge deals among themselves late last year.

The access charge is the cost DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone have paid to TOT for connecting different networks through TOT's facilities.

CAT has also paid the monthly access charge to TOT for Hutch on the basis of Bt200 per post-paid user and 18 per cent of revenue from pre-paid users, which it deems a huge cost.

Besides the access charge, CAT has to share half the revenue from Hutch with TOT under the access-charge agreement between TOT and CAT, the source added.

DTAC and True Move stopped paying the access charge to TOT last November to adopt the interconnection-charge rules. This prompted TOT last week to file civil lawsuits to demand the outstanding Bt10 billion access fee from DTAC and the overdue Bt4 billion access fee from True Move.

TOT, which has generally gained access fees of Bt14 billion, has continued to refuse to enter into negotiations with the three major cellular operators on the interconnection deals.