CAT to lobby TOT with presentation

The Nation (1 December 2007)

CAT Telecom will make a presentation to TOT next week about the benefits the telecom industry would gain from adopting the interconnection-charge regulations of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

CAT chairman Montree Sungkasap late this week said the company's board approved the findings of a study of interconnection- and access-charge regulations.

The result shows that the interconnection-charge regulations would lead to fair competition in the industry and significantly cut telecom operators' operating costs, which would enable them to pass benefits on to consumers.

Montree will present the study results to TOT chairman Saprang Kalayanamitr, as well as the Finance Ministry, which owns both TOT and CAT.

The NTC introduced the interconnection-charge regulations in November 2006. They require all telecom operators to share voice and data revenue fairly between any networks involved in a call.

The access charge is the cost that all of CAT's private cellular concessionaires - Total Access Communication (DTAC), True Move, and Digital Phone - have paid to TOT for connecting different networks via TOT's facilities. CAT wants to comply with the regulations and if possible stop paying the access charge to TOT.

CAT president Phisal Jorphochaudom said CAT might need to speak with TOT about terminating the access-charge agreements.

CAT has also paid monthly access charges to TOT for Hutchison-CAT on the basis of Bt200 per post-paid user and 18 per cent of revenue from prepaid users, which it deems a heavy burden. Hutchison-CAT is a cellular-service marketer joint venture between TOT and CAT.

Besides the access charge, CAT must share half of its revenue from Hutch with TOT under an access-charge agreement between TOT and CAT.

Currently, major telecom operators - Advanced Info Service, DTAC, True Move - have signed bilateral interconnection-charge deals with each other.

TOT opposes the regulations, which it says has affected the existing bilateral access-charge agreements between TOT and CAT's private cellular concessionaires.

DTAC and True Move stopped paying the access charge to TOT in November 2006 and adopted the interconnection charge instead, prompting TOT to file a civil suit against them to demand outstanding access fees of Bt10 billion from DTAC and Bt4 billion from True Move.

Since coming under the access-charge regulations with TOT in 1994, DTAC and True Move have so far paid a combined total of Bt62.417 billion in access fees to TOT.

Last week, CAT resubmitted the interconnection plan for NTC consideration in a bid to come under new telecom regulations.