The board of directors of CAT Telecom Plc has resigned, following pressure from its labour union. Caretaker Information and Communications Technology Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul said yesterday that the move followed the resignation of board chairman Wisudhi Srisuphan last week.

Wisudhi was uneasy that the board had splintered into factions, reports say.

On Monday, CAT labour union chief Wattana Iambamrung said the union had requested that the Office of the Auditor General investigate the board, charging that it had caused the state agency to lose business opportunities.

For example, Wattana said, the board found late last year that a contract CAT awarded many years ago to its joint venture Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia might not comply with the state joint-investment law. The contract allowed the firm to market the code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 1x high-speed cellular service in 25 provinces and was approved by the previous board. If the subsequent board was unsure about the matter, it should have asked the Council of State to clarify whether or not the contract was legal, Wattana said. CAT must also delay the plan to commercially launch its CDMA service on its own separate networks in 51 provinces from this month to early next year, due to a lack of good marketing and billing systems. It had intended the service to be its flagship business.

It has yet to finish discussions with Hutchison on collaboration between CAT's network in 51 provinces and Hutchison's network as part of their plans to offer the CDMA service countrywide.

The slow progress in the negotiations forced CAT to delay its listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, expected in this year's second quarter, to sometime later this year. The completion of the CDMA deal will enable CAT to evaluate its real business value for the listing.

Wattana said that he had to seek help from the Auditor General's Office after the Finance Ministry and the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry did not respond to the union's request early this month to investigate the performance of CAT's board.

The Finance Ministry owns and the ICT ministry oversees state telecom agencies. Suchai said the ministries are expected to jointly appoint a new board soon and he would step in after it takes office to solve CAT's problems.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation