Fees to CAT due from Real Move

CAT Telecom will inform Real Move next month that it will soon begin collecting fees for the 3G bandwidth the state agency wholesales to the cellular service provider, CAT's acting chief executive officer, Viroj Tocharoenvanith, said yesterday.

Real Move has been purchasing bandwidth from CAT to provide 3G services since August, but the state agency has yet to collect wholesale fees, pending the completion of its billing system and finalisation of the fee itself, Viroj said.

CAT is expected to have a total of 13,500 3G base stations by the end of this year for generating 3G bandwidth capacity, against its previously estimated total of 4,000. At the end of last year, it had some 3,000 base stations, higher than the previously estimated 1,500.

Meanwhile, CAT's board recently ordered the agency's committee on 3G service expenditure to further examine the possible risks and legal aspects of CAT's 3G service business.

The committee will take one month to complete the task.

As a result, the board is holding off granting Bt7 billion for CAT to prepare for payment of a 2012 interconnection fee to other telecom operators, pending completion of the study.

Earlier, CAT's management had requested Bt4 billion from the board to prepare for payment of the interconnection fee in the first half of this year, before adjusting the request to Bt7 billion for the whole-year payment.

An interconnection fee is the amount the network used by the caller pays to the network used by the receiver of that call.