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Published on April 9, 2008

The move follows Hutch's recent allegation that AIS has blocked its customers' calls to the AIS network.

AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn and DTAC chief commercial officer Thana Thiena-chariya held a joint press conference yesterday, at which they said they both wanted to see the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) impose an interim interconnection rate, which they believe would solve the problem experienced by Hutch subscribers.

AIS is in talks with CAT Telecom on the possibility of establishing the first direct link between AIS and Hutch but that means Hutch would have to comply with the NTC interconnection-charge regulation, Wichian said.

Hutch has marketed cellular service in 25 provinces under a contract with CAT. AIS and Hutch have connected with each other via TOT, while Hutch and DTAC have a direct link.

The interconnection regulations mandate that the network of the caller pays the interconnection fee to the network of the receiver, aiming to prevent the former from dumping calls on the latter's network.

AIS, DTAC and True Move signed bilateral interconnection-charge agreements last year at the rate of Bt1 per minute.

Hutch has proposed paying an interconnection rate of 21 satang per minute to DTAC, which the latter declined to accept. In December, DTAC asked the NTC's dispute settlement institute to consider imposing an interim rate between DTAC and Hutch but the case has yet to be ruled upon.

On March 28, the Civil Court upheld Hutch's application for a temporary injunction preventing AIS from allegedly blocking calls from Hutch's customers to the AIS network.

AIS denied the charge and countercharged that Hutch heavy promotions had prompted call congestion in other networks.

According to AIS, monthly traffic sent by Hutch to the AIS network surged to 183 million minutes in January from 106 million minutes in September, an increase of 72 per cent.

According to DTAC, the call traffic from Hutch to DTAC during the past 12 weeks was 467 million minutes versus 120 million minutes sent from DTAC to Hutch over the same period.

Thana said considering the traffic figures, DTAC would have gained Bt347 million in interconnection fees from Hutch if both had embraced the charge at the rate of Bt1 per minute.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation