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It doubts both the project's commercial viability and TOT's marketing ability, subcommittee chairman Sirichoke Sopa said yesterday.

Sirichoke, a Democrat, is also vice chairman of the House of Representatives' economic-development committee.

He said his subcommittee would soon propose to the committee that the government cancel the project.

The subcommittee last week met with the National Economic and Social Development Board and private telecom operators to hear their opinions of the project. It also invited TOT to attend, but the state agency declined to show up. The subcommittee will invite TOT again this week.

Sirichoke said the subcommittee was concerned the project was initiated for the benefit of certain politicians. It also believes the project lacks key details, such as about loans and loan repayment.

In August, the Cabinet approved TOT's plan to have its network operator, ACT Mobile, roll out the 3G network nationwide from 2009-11 at a cost of Bt29 billion. TOT expects the project to break even within seven years.

Of that amount, TOT will contribute Bt2 billion, while the rest will come from loans secured on a government-to-government basis. TOT plans to lease the network to private telecom operators so they can offer retail 3G service.

Sirichoke said True Move and Total Access Communication informed the subcommittee during last week's meeting it might be more cost-efficient to roll out their own 3G networks instead of leasing TOT's.

The telecom operators are waiting for the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to grant licences for the 2.1-gighertz spectrum on which to operate 3G service.

The subcommittee also questioned the legality of ACT Mobile's becoming involved in the network roll-out, because it is TOT, not ACT Mobile, that owns the 2.1GHz spectrum.

The 3G network will use the 2.1GHz spectrum in TOT's 1900-megahertz spectrum.

The now-defunct Frequency Allocation Committee awarded joint ownership of the 1,900MHz spectrum to TOT and CAT Telecom in 2000. TOT and CAT have already agreed that CAT will transfer its joint-ownership rights in the spectrum to TOT.

TOT is awaiting NTC approval for the transfer.