"Most regulators in foreign countries have nine commissioners. However, our commissioner figure can be changed, depending on the legislative assembly's decision," Yodhin Anavil, chairman of the panel, said last week.

The nine commissioners would comprise two experts each in broadcasting and telecommunications and one each in law, economics, education, local knowledge and culture, and national security.

The Yodhin panel suggested naming the new regulator the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

The NBTC would have eight offices working under it for content, basic infrastructure and network services. (See table.)

The directors would be appointed by the NBTC, but the two telecom commissioners would abstain from voting on the director of the content-regulating office.

Yodhin said the legislative assembly members are debating if they should explicitly state in the draft constitution that regulation of the telecom and broadcasting industries should be handled by one organisation.

While some agree with the idea, others argue that if there were a change again to the regulator's role in the future, it would take time to amend the constitution.

Putting such a clause in the frequency allocation law would be better, as a law is easier to amend than the charter.

The NLA science and information and communications-technology committee set up Yodhin's panel to study the legal aspects of a possible merger of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). The move was an attempt to clear an obstacle to the development of the telecom and broadcasting industries, which has been stalled by the lack of the NBC.

According to the Yodhin panel's proposal, the frequency-allocation law and telecom law should be amended to allow the merger.

The frequency-allocation law as it now stands mandates both licensing bodies to jointly manage the telecom and broadcasting spectrum and govern its utilisation, while the telecom law prescribes the two bodies' roles.

But due to constitutional issues, the NBC has experienced setbacks in its establishment, a state of affairs that has deterred the NTC from issuing more frequency licences. This in turn is regarded as blocking new telecom services.

The panel made several other recommendations:

l The merged commission's role should be limited to regulating the industries and not include, as at present, formulating policies, which should be the job of the government alone.

l The clauses in the frequency allocation law relating to the evaluation of the regulator's performance should be revised.

l The telecom law should state clearly that the NTC interconnection charge will be applied to all telecom operators, whether private firms holding concessions or the regulator's licensees, a proposal that has been opposed by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry out of concern for the possible revenue loss to TOT Plc.

The NTC requires all telecoms to share voice and data revenue according to their interconnection agreements.

Some private cellular service-providers want to pay only the interconnection charge and exit the existing access-charge regime, under which they have had to pay TOT for connecting to other networks via TOT's facilities. TOT has earned Bt14 billion per year from the access charge.

In another recommendation the telecom law would state clearly that the regulator has authority over the private concession-holders. Again, the ICT Ministry objects, claiming the change is against the national interest.

The Yodhin panel will summarise the results of its two public hearings held last month and submit its final report, including the NBTC structure, to the standing committee this month. The committee is expected to submit its proposal to the Cabinet or the NLA next month.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation