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Published on January 31, 2008

However, a source at TOT said the state agency had already replied to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that it would not comply with the order, pending a ruling on the case by the Central Administrative Court.

DTAC asked TOT to enter into negotiations in the middle of last year, but TOT refused to do so. Both presented their cases at the NTC's dispute settlement panel, which ordered TOT to negotiate with DTAC on the interconnection deal.

TOT later asked the Central Administrative Court to revoke the interconnection regulations, citing the effect on its business.

The NTC's interconnection regulations - the core of the dispute - require all telecom operators that signed bilateral interconnection deals to share voice and data revenue proportionately between the networks involved in the calls. DTAC and True Move stopped paying the access charge to TOT in November 2006 and since then have adopted the interconnection regulations.

The TOT access charge is the cost three of CAT Telecom's private cellular concessionaires - DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone - have paid to TOT for connecting different networks through TOT facilities. TOT's access-charge revenue is about Bt14 billion per year.

Last month, TOT filed civil suits to demand from DTAC and True Move a combined overdue access charge of more than Bt14 billion.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation