The premier told TOT's labour union he would ask Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom to pay special attention to the case.

The union met the premier yesterday to request that he cancel or delay the enforcement of the interconnection charge of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which was published in the Royal Gazette in May.

The introduction of the interconnection charge prompted Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move, two of CAT Telecom's three private cellular concessionaires, to stop paying an access charge to TOT. They are now paying only an interconnection charge under the NTC's regime.

The access charge was paid by concessionaires to TOT for connecting different networks via TOT facilities, but True Move and DTAC want to pay only the interconnection charge, which is paid by a caller's network to a receiver's network.

Both operators regard the access charge as creating higher costs and putting them at a competitive disadvantage in terms of pricing strategy and profit margins to Advanced Info Service (AIS).

Both believe that TOT, which owns the AIS concession, has waived the access charge for AIS, while AIS insists its access charge is included in its concession fee.

Last Friday, True Move and DTAC became the first telecom operators to reach an agreement on the interconnection rates they will charge each other.

In a related matter, CAT chairman Sommai Dabphet said after a board meeting yesterday that the board had asked CAT executives to seek a fair and win-win solution for all parties over the access charges.

CAT president Phisal Jorphochaudom added that DTAC had explained to him it had not terminated the access charge to TOT, but rather wanted TOT to reduce the payment.

He said that according to DTAC CEO Sigve Brekke, DTAC had been paying as much as Bt10 a minute in access charges.

"DTAC wants TOT to cut to the access charge to Bt1 per minute," said Phisal.