Making money from sex

An activist yesterday accused TOT of knowingly benefiting - handsomely - from contracts granted to companies that run illegal telephone sex services.

Sombat Boonngarmanong, chairman of the Mirror Foundation, also threatened to lodge a complaint with the National Telecommunica-tions Commission, asking it to revoke all operating licences granted to TOT.

"I have never seen, in any countries, state-owned telecom authorities grant concessions for sex services," he added.

Sombat said his foundation had made several written statements asking TOT to revoke licences for sex services, but TOT had not taken any action against the companies or given any response to the foundation.

"I regard TOT's dismay at our request as intent to protect the interests of those companies.

"I hereby demand that TOT shows responsibility over the matter," he said in a press conference held by the foundation, which works against human trafficking and work on missing-person cases.

Ekkalak Lumchomkhae, a senior foundation official, estimated that TOT made around Bt250 million each year from concessions given to 10 sex-line companies, on top of a special fee of Bt1 million from each company.

The Bt250 million accounts for 40 per cent of the revenue generated by the services, which charge customers Bt13 per minute for each call.

Ekkalak said TOT could immediately revoke the 15-year concessions following clear evidence of "voice prostitution" produced by police who recently raided a sex-line company and arrested a number of students.

TOT officials found to have granted concessions to these companies knowing that they provided illegal services should also be punished criminally, he said.