Highlights of the draft are the criteria by which telecom operators may be declared as dominating the market.

The NTC plans to formulate measures to govern the practice of market domination, such as ordering operators to offer access to their networks on a non-discriminatory, fairly priced basis.

The draft proposes that the NTC may consider a telecom operator as dominant if it controls more than 25 per cent of the market. However, this factor will not be considered in isolation.

Even if a telecom operator has less than a 25-per-cent market share, it may be considered dominant according to other factors, including the size of its business according to revenue, its number of subscribers and network capacity.

Consideration will also be given to a firm's power to permit network access to other operators, the advantages it gains from having a large number of subscribers, behaviour towards competitors and consumers, technological advantages, bargaining power over other players and access to capital.

NTC deputy secretary Kulit Sirisombat said it would ask all operators to express their opinions on the draft ahead of a public hearing on November 15.

Telecom Reporters

 The Nation