The National Telecom-munications Commission (NTC) will begin the process of selecting one new commissioner within 30 days, following Monday's resignation of Artorn Chandavimol.

A meeting of the remaining six commissioners yesterday concluded the resignation had taken effect on Monday, the day Artorn tendered his letter of resignation.

NTC secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn said the commission would invite relevant organisations to send representatives to form a selection committee. These include the Education, Information and Communications Technology, Defence and Commerce Ministries. Telecom scholars and consumer-protection organisations will also be represented on the selection committee.

The committee will narrow the field of candidates down to two, and these will be submitted to the National Legislative Assembly, which - in lieu of the Senate - will have the task of selecting the successful candidate to become the NTC commissioner.

"We can't say when the selection process will be finished," said Suranan.

NTC regulations stipulate the commission can continue working if it has as few as four commissioners in office.

Artorn yesterday said he had decided to leave the NTC so that he could dedicate his time to contributing to society. However, an NTC source said he had felt pressured by increasing criticism of the commission.

State telecom agencies have strongly criticised the NTC's decision to introduce an interconnection-charge regime, which has led them to fear a huge loss of revenues from access charges.

The access charge is a fee all private cellular concessionaires of CAT Telecom pay to TOT for connecting to different networks through TOT's facilities. TOT stands to lose about Bt14 billion a year if the concessionaires stop paying the access charge and opt to pay only the new interconnection charge.

Under the NTC's interconnection-charge regime, telecom operators must share revenues from voice calls made between networks.

The source said Artorn also felt his NTC colleagues had offered him little support.

Artorn's main duty was overseeing the Universal Service Obligation Fund, into which telecom licensees are obliged to pay 4 per cent of their revenues if they decide not to offer telecom services in remote areas. The NTC then uses the fund to hire other telecom firms to provide telecom access in such areas.

Meanwhile, CAT Telecom's labour union on Tuesday claimed the NTC, whose role is to protect national interests, awarded several companies licences to provide international calls without proper regulations being in place.

The union has also decided to ask the Council for National Security to dissolve the NTC, since the commission was created under the 1997 Constitution, which was scrapped after the September 19 coup.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation