The state agency's president Somkual Buraminhentr said yesterday that TOT remained firm in its current position.

The move is despite an order from the Information and Communications Technology Ministry yesterday that TOT must integrate an additional 1.5 million numbers from each of DTAC and True Move into its system.

ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom also assigned CAT Telecom to talk with DTAC and True Move to seek a resolution to the access-charge dispute between the two cellular operators and TOT. CAT owns the concessions of DTAC and True Move.

On Wednesday, DTAC filed a lawsuit against TOT at the lower court over the network-access dispute and demanded more than Bt73 million in compensation from the state agency.

DTAC has asked the court to issue an injunction preventing TOT from disconnecting its services. The Bt73-million compensation claim is for damage relating to the dispute, plus an additional Bt15 million per day for lost business opportunities.

The court called in both disputing parties yesterday to explain their case and is expected to make the ruling today.

The dispute began recently when TOT refused to integrate 1.5 million new phone numbers from DTAC and True Move into its network, citing their refusal to pay its access charges.

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 integrate the new numbers means calls from TOT's fixed-line phones cannot reach new numbers belonging to DTAC and True Move. Both cellular operators have already sold out the new numbers to subscribers.

The access charge, at the heart of the dispute, is a cost against the cellular concessionaires of CAT Telecom. It covers the cost of these operators connecting their subscribers' calls to other networks via TOT's facilities. CAT's concessionaires include DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone Co.

DTAC intends to pay the access charge to TOT, but at an 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, requires all operators to share revenues from voice and data calls between their networks on a fair basis. DTAC and True Move say they want to pay only the interconnection charge, instead of paying both the access and interconnection fees.

TOT has earned about Bt14 billion per year from the access charges.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation