The source said that in a CAT Telecom board meeting last December, the issue was discussed, but there was no agreement. Some members raised concerns that such a venture was not in line with the act in question.

Hutchison-CAT is a 75:25 joint venture that markets Hutch mobile-phone services in Bangkok and 25 provinces in the Central region over the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x network leased from BFKT, a subsidiary of Hong Kong telecom giant Hutchison.

A CAT Telecom union member said the matter was in doubt because of financial statements indicating that CAT Telecom had temporarily suspended payments.

The leasing contract stipulated that Hutchison-CAT would pay a monthly network-leasing fee of between Bt4 billion and Bt5 billion, but CAT Telecom has temporarily suspended the payments.

The source said the board was negotiating with Hutchison to solve the problem and avoid legal action from its partner.

CAT senior executive vice president Sompol Chanprasert acknowledged there was a conflict between his company and Hutchison caused by different ideas, but he refused to disclose details. However, he argued that the conflict would not affect the joint-venture wireless business.

CAT has its own CDMA network in 51 provinces and is now in talks with Hutchison Telecom about the possibility of a joint operation to provide cellular service using their two separate networks.

Moreover, the source said CAT had delayed the launch of its own CDMA network in another 51 provinces from the middle of this year to early next year.

Telecom reporters

The Nation