The data service provider Advanced Datanetwork Communications (ADC) has applied for a licence from the national telecom regulator to operate a nationwide fixed-line telephone service.

Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn, secretary-general of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), said that ADC planned to operate 100,000 phone numbers with an investment of around Bt1 billion.

It will install 10,000 in Bangkok in the first year before expanding to the provinces. The project is expected to be completed in three to four years.

However, the NTC board asked ADC to clarify whether it could be a dominant player in the fixed line field, given that it was 48 per cent owned by the largest fixed-line operator TOT.

The largest cellular operator, Advanced Info Service, owns 51 per cent of ADC.

The request is part of the NTC's policy to determine whether licensees are the dominant players in their market segments. If so, they will be subject to stricter NTC regulations to control the dominant players.

The licensing body is expected to publish regulations controlling the dominant players in the Royal Gazette soon.

In a separate matter, the NTC board last week passed a resolution demanding that TOT, which holds NTC licences, pay its overdue number fee of Bt700 million for last year.

TOT stopped paying the number fee to the regulator after

the NTC issued additional

phone numbers to all telecom operators. It also asked the Council of State to rule whether it had to pay the fee.

Suranan said that TOT had no reason to stop paying the number fee as the money gained by the NTC would be returned to state coffers.

In another development, the NTC board late last week officially approved regulations governing the phone-to-phone voice-communications service based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. The technology enables voice transmission over the IP network.

Last year the watchdog allow-ed Internet service-providers under its licences to automatically operate the VoIP voice calling service but only from personal computer to personal computer and from personal computer to telephone.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation