He said that making past concession amendments in line with the 1992 Public-Private Joint Investment Act was not the same as asking concessionaires to pay a higher share of their revenue.

According to the law, any state-private joint venture worth at least Bt1 billion needs Cabinet approval.

The Council of State declared last Friday that the past concession amendments of four major mobile-phone operators did not comply with the 1992 Act. Negotiations between the state concession owners - TOT and CAT Telecom - and their cellular concessionaires are now required in order to make the amendments comply with the law.

The Information and Communi-cations Technology Ministry wants to revise the concessionaires' revenue payments to the state agencies to a uniform rate of 30 per cent, from the present level of about 25 per cent.

In 2001, TOT permitted AIS to reduce its prepaid-call revenue share to a 20-per-cent flat rate until the concession expires in 2015. Under its original contract, AIS had to pay 25 per cent of its prepaid call reve-nues to TOT between 2001 and 2005, the rate then rising to 30 per cent until 2015.

On Monday, executives of AIS, Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move said they were willing to collaborate with the government in the concession renegotiations, but were first awaiting more details.

True Move said the government should take the opportunity to convert all the concession contracts into licences in order to end the confusion in the industry.

It added that Thailand had two sets of regulations in one place - those of the state concession owners and those of the National Telecommunications Commission.

TOT owns the AIS concession, while CAT owns those of DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone Co.

Sirivish Toomgum

The Nation