TOT is threatening to prevent the calls of existing Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move customers from going through its network if the companies insist on refusing to pay its access charge, which is due tomorrow.

A TOT director, Supa Piyajitti, said yesterday that if the two cellular operators continued to refuse to pay the access charge, calls from their customers - more than 25 million mobile-phone users - would not be able to "go through" the state agency's network. All telecom operators connect with one another either by direct links or via TOT's links.

Supa declined to elaborate on TOT's plans and did not specify when it would take action. However, she said the action did not amount to blocking calls.

True Move CEO Supachai Chearavanont said he did not believe TOT would take such action, because consumers would be seriously affected.

The dispute began recently when TOT refused to integrate 1.5 million additional phone numbers each of DTAC and True Move into its network, citing their refusal to pay the access charge, which is a cost private cellular firms holding concession from CAT Telecom pay for connecting to other networks via TOT's facilities. CAT's concessionaires include DTAC and True Move.

A telecom company needs all other operators to integrate - or, in technical terms, "translate" - its new numbers into their switching systems so that the numbers are recognised by other networks.

TOT's refusal to register new numbers from DTAC and True Move means calls from other networks, including those from TOT's fixed-line phones, will not reach the new numbers if the calls are relayed through TOT's network.

DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said his company will take to the Central Administrative Court today the case of TOT's refusal to integrate DTAC's new numbers

"We'll ask for an emergency hearing to solve the issue as soon as possible, before consumers get hurt," he said.

DTAC and True Move began on Monday selling the additional phone numbers that were not yet integrated into TOT's network.

DTAC intends to pay the access charge to TOT but at the interconnection-charge rate of Bt1.25 per minute instead of the original access charge rate of Bt8 a minute.

The interconnection charge, introduced recently by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) requires all telecom operators to share revenues from voice and data calls between their networks on a fair basis.

DTAC and True Move both say they now want to pay only the interconnection charge, instead of paying both the access and interconnection fees.

TOT will lose around Bt14 billion in annual revenues if three of CAT Telecom's cellular concessionaires - DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone Co - cease to pay the access charge.

Yesterday, CAT and TOT sent a joint letter to DTAC and True Move in an attempt to find a way out of the dispute. Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said TOT and CAT will file a joint case with the Central Administrative Court, the Criminal Court and the Civil Court, to get a ruling on whether they have to comply with access charge or interconnection charge regulations. TOT has also sought to consult the Council of State on the same issue.

The minister said that because there were many network-interconnection laws, the industry needed a court ruling to clarify the matter.

TOT president Somkual Buraminhentr said yesterday he did not know whether TOT's private telecom concessionaires - Advanced Info Service (AIS), True Corp and TT&T - had integrated the additional phone numbers of DTAC and True Move into their networks.

"They have to follow our practice as they're our concessionaires," he said. "If they translate the additional phone numbers of the two cellular operators into their networks we'll punish them, and the punishment is to revoke their concessions."

However, AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn said AIS has complied with the NTC's interconnection regulations to avoid affecting consumers.

He said TOT's refusal to translate the additional phone numbers of DTAC and True Move into its system would mean that only calls via TOT links will fail to reach the new numbers. If the new numbers cannot call out to different networks, it would mean they are blocked.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation