Minister wants fast resolution to row

ICT Minister Mun Patanothai told the firms to settle the case of Thai Mobile this month and the access charge next month.

TOT and CAT have yet to reach a decision on the final share price TOT will pay for CAT's 42-per-cent share in Thai Mobile, as part of TOT's takeover of Thai Mobile, which provides a cellular service on the 1,900 MHz spectrum.

TOT wants CAT to reduce the total price from Bt2.4 billion, recently agreed by both state agencies.

CAT's chairman, Satit Limpongpan said that if both could not reach a final agreement on the share price, they might decide to continue jointly running Thai Mobile and would turn Thai Mobile into a wholesale cellular network provider instead.

TOT's chairman, Teravuti Boonyasopon said TOT had no cash-flow problem in buying into Thai Mobile. Thai Mobile owns the 1,900 MHz spectrum, which is part of the 2.1 GHz spectrum, a global standard platform for offering mobile broadband 3G services.

Teravuti said that both CAT and TOT would find a way to settle the access-charge dispute outside the courts, or TOT might withdraw the legal suit against CAT.

TOT filed a lawsuit in the civil court against CAT and its private cellular concessions,Total Access Communication and True Move, last November to claim overdue combined access charges of over Bt14 billion from both cellular operators.

The legal action follows their suspension of payment of the access charge to TOT since November 2006, and they have turned to comply with the interconnection regulations of the National Telecommunications Commission instead.

The access charge is the cost DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone have paid to TOT for connecting different networks through the TOT network. The interconnection regulations mandate that the network of a caller pays the interconnection fee to the network of the call receiver.