Sudharma Yoonaidharma, the member of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in charge of interconnection policy development, said last week that he would soon propose the plan for the full commission's approval.

The institute would work with the NTC to figure out standardised interconnection rates, he said. "For example, the model will tell the telecoms with different network coverage how to compute the interconnection rates between them, or which factors to take into account in working out fair rates," Sudharma said.

The interconnection rates would be based on long-run incremental costs.

The institute will also find a standard method for operators to develop a reference interconnection offer (RIO), a set of technical and commercial terms that the operators will use to provide network interconnection services among themselves.

The interconnection regulations published in the Royal Gazette on May 17 require all operators to share voice and data revenues between two or more networks carrying a call.

All operators are also required to offer their network facilities on a non-discriminatory basis for other operators to use.

Most of the operators submitted their RIO and proposed interconnection rates to the NTC early last month, as requested by the NTC, but the regulator has yet to provide them a standard for computing interconnection rates.

Sudharma said the NTC had to make the request so that it could quickly create conditions for fair network connections among all operators as well as a level playing field for new players.

The NTC will take 90 days to approve the submitted RIO and interconnection-rate proposals, after which the operators have 60 days to negotiate with each other to finalise the rates.

If the operators fail to reach agreement within the NTC's timeframe, the NTC will decide on interconnection rates for them to use until the NTC's institute completes its study. Then all operators will use the standard formulas to determine new interconnection rates.

The interconnection tariff comprises termination, transit and origination rates. A caller's network pays a termination charge to the destination network and a transit charge to a network that relays calls between networks.

The origination charge is paid to the caller's network by the network that receives the call. This charge applies to CAT Telecom Plc, which bills its customers for overseas calls and has to share the revenue with the operators that transfer their subscribers' calls to CAT's international gateway.

TOT Plc proposed to the NTC an origination rate of Bt3 per minute, a transit rate of Bt0.50 per minute and a termination rate of Bt1.25 per minute for cellular calls to its network.

CAT has proposed Bt1.07 per minute for all three rates.

For the termination rate, Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) has proposed Bt1.07 per minute, while Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move have proposed Bt1. True Corp Plc backs Bt1.25.

For the call origination rate, AIS, DTAC and True Move have all recommended Bt3 per minute.

AIS has proposed a transit rate of Bt1 per minute against DTAC's Bt0.50 and True Move's Bt0.20.

DTAC's three rates took total operating costs from 2003-2005 into account. Last week it disclosed its RIO details to the public to satisfy NTC's interconnection regulations.

Gabriel Solomon, director of partnership development for the GSM Association, said on the sidelines of DTAC's presentation that Thailand should promote its telecom industry by offering tax incentives in many areas. That would help boost sales of mobile phones and service subscriptions.

Operators here are burdened with many kinds of taxes, such as the telecom excise tax, as well as regulatory fees.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

Pattaya