Advanced Info Service, True Move, and Total Access Communication (DTAC) specified three interconnection charges in their proposals - call terminate rate, call originate rate and transit rate.

The call terminate charge will go to the operator of the service used by the receiver of a call. The call originate charge will go to CAT Telecom Plc for transmitting calls overseas. And the transit charge goes to TOT Plc for providing facilities that connect calls across networks.

For the call terminate rate, DTAC and True proposed Bt1 per minute, while AIS proposed Bt1.07 per minute due to its larger network. For the call originate rate, all three operators proposed Bt3 per minute. For the transit rate, True proposed 20 satang per minute, DTAC 50 satang and AIS Bt1.

True, which also operates a regular telephone service, proposed to collect Bt1.25 per minute for calls from the mobile phones of other operators to its fixed-line network.

TOT and CAT, the two state enterprises, failed to file their proposed tariffs by yesterday's deadline. So did TT&T, which operates a telephone service in the provinces.

The members of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will consider the proposals next Thursday. "The rates vary. Probably we will opt for the average and enforce single rates. That could be announced in 90 days, or we can hold a public hearing again before that," NTC chairman Choochart Promphrasid said.

"We proposed the rates in view of our operating costs," said Thana Pienachariya, DTAC chief commercial officer. "But we are ready to hear what the NTC has to say about this."

The new interconnection regime would be the beginning of the liberalisation of the telecom industry, said Kachorn Chiaravanont, True's director for regulatory affairs.

True and DTAC have high hopes that the advent of interconnection charges would spell the end of access charges, which they are required to pay to CAT, the agency that granted their concessions.

The access charges come on top of revenue-based payments they have to make to CAT. DTAC is committed to paying 25 per cent of post-paid revenues to CAT. For prepaid, DTAC has to pay 18 per cent of the revenues derived.

AIS, which operates on a concession from TOT, is exempted from the access charge of Bt200 per month per number, while it has to remit 30 per cent of its revenues to TOT.

Recently, the NTC allowed all private mobile firms to link networks directly, as users have been unable to place calls due to congestion. With the linkage, operators do not have to route their calls through TOT, which means they should no longer have to pay the access charge.

The emergence of operators' linkage would put TOT in a quagmire. The loss of the 2 million minutes of mobile calls a year it handles would mean a revenue cut of Bt20 billion.

True Move CEO Supachai Chearavanont earlier said that when the interconnection charges start, True would stop paying the access charge. He regards the access-charge arrangement as an "agreement" between TOT and True Move and not a formal part of their concession.

True Move is estimated to have paid TOT Bt4 billion in access charges last year.

If its rivals stop paying access charges, AIS has said it would also want to revise its revenue-sharing formula with TOT.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation