Samart has informed TOT that it will stop providing billing and marketing services for the state agency's cellular operator Thai Mobile today, citing Thai Mobile's failure to pay its overdue service fee.

A TOT source said the agency's board would convene today to seek a solution, or else Thai Mobile's 80,000 subscribers would be affected.

He added that Thai Mobile had not paid the monthly fee of Bt34 million to Samart since 2005. The outstanding payment due totalled Bt850 million as of last month.

Thai Mobile, which is jointly owned by TOT and CAT Telecom, started operating in 2003. It has an accumulated debt of Bt4 billion and accumulated losses of Bt6 billion.

TOT is in the process of buying all of CAT's shares in Thai Mobile as part of its plan to take over the cellular operator.

The source said Thai Mobile had monthly revenues of about Bt30 million but had shouldered operating costs of Bt120 million per month.

TOT plans to steer Thai Mobile to develop a third generation (3G) broadband cellular service, given that Thai Mobile is the only cellular operator owning part of the 1900MHz spectrum, an international standard platform for developing 3G services.

The spectrum was allocated to be under the joint ownership of TOT and CAT many years ago by the now defunct frequency allocation panel in the pre-National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) era. This was before both state agencies jointly created Thai Mobile to provide cellular service on the frequency.

The NTC has yet to grant any 3G frequency licences, pending the establishment of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC). The frequency allocation law mandates the NTC and NBC to jointly allocate telecom and broadcasting frequencies and prescribe their uses.

However, the Central Administrative Court ruled in November 2005 to invalidate the process of selecting 14 candidates for NBC seats, citing its unconstitutionality.

The cellular operators are interested in providing 3G services, which will enable them to offer bandwidth-hungry data services to 3G phone users with blazing speed, and thus earn more from subscribers.

TOT has considered spending Bt20 billion to roll out the 3G network but has yet to make any decision on such a move.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation