The telecom regulator yesterday launched its probe into allegations brought by True that Advanced Info Service (AIS) is in breach of anti-monopoly and fair-competition regulations.

Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn, secretary-general of the National Telecommunications Commission, said the commissioners had given the staff 30 days to complete the investigation.

True has accused AIS of price dumping by introducing a special prepaid package for new subscribers, which charges Bt1 per call during off-peak hours and

Bt1 per minute during peak hours for calls connecting to any network.

AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn said AIS had yet to receive any letter concerning the NTC's plan to investigate the firm. It has only received a letter asking it to inform the NTC in advance every time it launches a promotion.

The NTC has ordered all telecom operators to report every time they launch a call promotion.

Wichian said AIS was not doing anything wrong and that introductions of heavily discounted airtime promotions were a common marketing practice of all cellular operators.

The NTC also approved 1.5 million new mobile-phone numbers for True Move, the cellular arm of True, out of the company's request for two million numbers.

The NTC is considering the requests of Total Access Communication (DTAC) and AIS for 3.5 million and two million additional numbers, respectively.

AIS has more than 17.5 million subscribers, DTAC about 10 million and True Move more than 5 million.

The NTC has also approved a type-2 licence for Acumen to operate an international Internet gateway service. The type-2 licence is for a telecom, with or without its own network, whose service is not intended to be large scale and marketed to the general public.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation