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Published on July 26, 2007

CAT spokesman Piriya Siriboon on Tuesday said that meant their planned joint cellular service offering their two separate Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x networks would not take place soon, given that the process of setting up such a joint venture via the public-private law would take time.

The Act requires Cabinet ap-proval for such a joint venture if it is worth more than Bt1 billion.

CAT has its own CDMA network in 51 provinces, while Hutch, a joint venture between CAT and Hong Kong telecom giant Hutchison Telecom, provides cellular service on its network in 25 provinces.

The CDMA cellular technology is the global rival of the predominant GSM cellular service.

CAT has yet to finish examin-

ing its network in 51 provinces, which was installed by China's telecom-equipment vendor, Huawei Technologies. Huawei delivered the complete network to CAT by the January 25 deadline.

Piriya said CAT would finish the examination on August 10 and at the same time conclude the fee amount for Huawei, but he declined to give more details.

Meanwhile, the board granted approval for CAT to procure a billing system on an e-auction basis. The system will be used with both its CDMA and international calling services.

The project's reference price is Bt1.4 billion, and the system must be able to serve 1.4 million customers, a revision from the original Bt2.1 billion for 4 million customers.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation