The two sides expressed their divergent views on the direction for the industry at a seminar titled "The National Telecom Development and Direction Policy", co-hosted by The Nation and Krungthep Turakij newspapers.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom, who led off the seminar, said he supported the intention of TOT to take back network management rights from private telecom operators. After that, the TOT wants to deploy the private operators' networks for the public benefit and lease them to existing and any other interested telecom operators.

"Both state agencies must be the country's telecom backbone. The telecom network must be controlled by the state, not by the private sector. The private operators should be only service retailers," he said.

TOT and CAT Telecom granted concessions on a Build-Transfer-Operate basis to private telecom operators but they have no right to manage the private concessionaires' networks.

He added that the two state agencies have been exploited and weakened by corrupt politicians and now it is time to revitalise them.

But he admitted that it would be difficult to prevent politicians in the next government from intervening in TOT or CAT and reaping benefits from them.

He confirmed he has no intention to seize private telecom concessions and has promoted fair competition with flexibility.

The ministry has asked the Council of State to examine all private telecom concessions and whether their past amendments complied with the relevant laws. The minister said this was part of his attempt to create fair competition among all telecom operators.

Another panellist, TOT president Somkual Buraminhentr agreed with Sitthichai that the TOT's goal is to become the national provider but it is willing to partner private telecom operators on any business.

Somkiat Tangkitvanit, a scholar at the Thailand Development Research Institute,  who joined the panel said the ministry's support of network management rights suggests that the Kingdom prefers Thai capital to foreign capital and that the state agency's capital is good Thai capital. Such an attitude would affect the confidence of foreign investors, he warned.

If the ministry is concerned about national security stemming from private ownership of telecom networks, it should open up the market so that the consumers do not have to rely on a few major privately-owned networks but instead have several choices, he said.

"The ministry should not take an inward-looking stance in developing the industry," he said.

Another panellist, telecom scholar Anupab Tiralap, questioned whether the ministry, which wants to see stronger state agencies, would dare to cut the "gluttonous workforce" of the state agencies in order to increase their efficiency.

He said that TOT staff would immediately lose their service provision jobs if TOT wants to operate only a network leasing service.

NTC commissioner Sethaporn Cusripituck questioned how TOT could be sure that private telecom operators would lease its networks, and not the networks of the others. The NTC recently awarded licences to three state electricity generating enterprises to lease their nation-wide telecom facilities.

Another panellist Anant Voratitipong, vice president for business relations and development at Advanced Info Service, said there is no reason for TOT to take the network management rights of the private telecom operators as the networks would soon be returned to TOT or CAT.

Panellist Supachai Chearavanon, chief executive of True Corp, said that the private sector needs clear regulations, the eradication of the state monopolistic situation, and concession fees. Moreover, the government should focus on promoting wider telecom service accessibility, especially broadband Internet service.

Private telecom operators are estimated to pay a combined Bt50 billion in concession fees per year. Now some of them are also subject to the NTC's license fee in addition to the concession fee.

Panellist Thana Thienachariya, chief commercial officer of Total Access Communication (DTAC), said the government should support the industry to enable local players to become global players and promote fair competition among all, regardless of their state or private status. But he does not expect to see a big change during this government's tenure, which will end in October.

DTAC and True Move are in dispute with TOT on the access charge, which requires all cellular operators under CAT's concessions, including DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone, to pay such charges to TOT for connecting different networks via TOT's facilities.

DTAC and True Move want to pay only the interconnection charge, which was introduced by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). The interconnection charge requires all telecom operators to proportionately share voice and data revenue between the networks involved in the calls.

The NTC has always said that it has no authority to intervene in the access charge, which is a bilateral agreement between TOT and CAT's cellular concessionaires.

All the panellists from the private telecom operators agreed that the military-backed government with autonomous power should frame clear policies and remove all the stumbling blocks within its term in office.