Phisal Chorpokaudom, president of CAT, which owns True Move's concession, said True Move had informed CAT and TOT that it would pay the access charge in the payment cycle that was due last December.

A source at CAT said that True Move would pay about Bt11 million of the access charge to TOT for the December payment cycle, with that payment covering only its existing phone numbers. True Move and another CAT private cellular concessionaire, Total Access Communication (DTAC), had previously insisted since last November that they would not pay the access charge.

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 through TOT's facilities.

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 wants to pay only the interconnection charge, instead of paying both the access and interconnection fees. Until now, TOT has earned around Bt14 billion per year from the access charges.

DTAC has yet to agree to pay the access charge to TOT.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation