Published on October 18, 2005

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) is speeding up the preparation conditions for network interconnection, as a guide to network access among its licensees.

NTC secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn said the conditions, which relate to the technical side of network connection and apply only to NTC licensees, will be finished soon and public hearings will be held next month.

Earlier, the NTC hurried to award business licences to TOT Plc, CAT Telecom Plc and Internet service providers, but it has yet to finalise the interconnection guidelines and fees.

This has made some other companies reluctant to apply for licences.

The NTC began granting all three types of telecom business licences in August.

A type one licence is for service providers with no network, while a type two licence is for those either with or without a network who have plans to provide services to a limited group of consumers. A type three licence is for those providing telecom services via large networks and whose competition affects consumers.

Currently, companies can apply only for type three licences to operate fixed-line services. The NTC is expected to grant these to companies offering 3G services and Internet protocol-based telecom services by late this year. Suranan said the next step was to speed up the setting of interconnection rates.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

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