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Published on September 6, 2007

Both operators have cited the same reason: they have lost a business opportunity in the overseas call-service market from the delay of the two state agencies in transferring three-digit numbers to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) for reallocation.

A source at True said the company had recently written to the ICT Ministry seeking its help, while a DTAC source said the company would send a similar request to the ministry today.

True International Communications, a subsidiary of True Corp, bagged an NTC licence to operate an overseas call service in January, while DTAC Network - a DTAC subsidiary - did the same in February. However, neither has been able to start the service due to a lack of three-digit phone numbers.

This means AIN Global Com, a subsidiary of Advanced Info Service (AIS), has stolen a march on both companies. AIN was the first to clinch an overseas call licence from the NTC last July. The NTC granted the prefix 005 for the service, which is up and running.

Faced with the possibility of receiving new applications to run international call services, the NTC has found itself with only one three-digit prefix - 006 - left for newcomers. It has therefore asked TOT and CAT to return some of their inactive three-digit numbers, including CAT's 004 and TOT's 002 and 003.

DTAC and True have urged the NTC to pressure both state agencies to give back some three-digit numbers, but there has been no progress.

CAT uses 001 and 009 for dialling abroad and 004 for its incoming roaming service. It plans to move the incoming roaming service to another number so it can return 004 to the NTC.

TOT uses 007 for regular international calls and 002 for Internet Protocol-based international calls.

Usanee Mongkolporn

 The Nation