In a statement released yesterday, the union accused the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) of issuing regulations that encouraged private telecom concessionaires to terminate their contracts with TOT.

It added that the NTC breached telecom laws by allowing direct interconnection between telecom operators, while Article 25 of the Telecom Business Act states that only NTC licensees can directly connect with one another.

NTC chairman Choochart Promphrasid declined to comment on the accusation, saying that people would soon know the truth.

The NTC is implementing an interconnection charge regime which requires all telecom operators to share voice revenue between the two networks involved in the calls.

As a result, telecom operators are in talks with each other to finalise the interconnection rates they will charge each other.

An industry source, who requested anonymity, said that the TOT union moved against the NTC because the interconnection regime would encourage CAT's private cellular concessionaires to stop paying access charges to TOT, causing it to lose revenue.

Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move intend to stop paying TOT access fees and will only pay the interconnection charge in order to shift to the NTC's regime.

Currently CAT Telecom Plc's private cellular concessionaires, including DTAC and True Move, pay an access charge to TOT for connecting different networks via TOT's facilities.

The union also alleged that the NTC imposed a high regulatory cost on state telecom agencies, though Article 11 of the Telecommunications Business Act stated that the NTC's regulations must not cause an extra burden to the licensees.

The NTC granted licences to TOT and CAT in August 2004, covering all of their businesses.