AIS calls for probe into DTAC sale
Advanced Info Service (AIS) yesterday asked the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to investigate whether Total Access Communication (DTAC) had shared the proceeds from the sale of part of its spectrum with its concession owner, CAT Telecom.
The move follows last week's allegation by AIS that DTAC had sold part of its spectrum, which is a national asset, and questions over whether DTAC shared the money with CAT. AIS said that in 1996, DTAC and CAT jointly made an agreement with Wireless Communication Service (WCS) to allow the latter to use part of DTAC's 12.5MHz slice of the 1800MHz mobile frequency band. DTAC then transferred the bandwidth to CAT, which later awarded it to WCS. However, in the contract signed between the three of them, there is no condition that WCS has to pay DTAC for the use of the spectrum. DTAC and CAT made a similar deal with Digital Phone Co (DPC) in the same year, and again no condition in the contract required DPC to pay for the right to use another part of DTAC's 12.5MHz allocation. AIS claimed that in 1997, DTAC made a contract with DPC in which DPC had to pay DTAC on an instalment basis for the use of its spectrum and without the awareness of CAT. DPC paid instalments to DTAC and suddenly stopped after it was taken over by AIS, because AIS viewed that DTAC had no right to charge DPC when the spectrum ultimately belonged to CAT, not DTAC. DTAC and AIS have already taken the case to an arbitration panel.
|
