Cellular-service providers will soon be prohibited from charging their subscribers a lower rate for intra-network calls than for internetwork calls in a bid to promote market competition.
The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) will soon issue an administrative order instructing all cellular firms to adjust their "on-net call rate" to the same level as that for calls to other networks.
Thana Thienachariya, head of corporate affairs and strategy at Total Access Communication, yesterday said that while subscribers would lose out if on-net call rates were raised telecoms would benefit from higher call revenue.
Most subscribers are already accustomed to the present on-net rates, he said.
NTC deputy secretary-general Prasert Apipunya said the move would set the standard for the industry and ensure a level playing field between existing major and smaller players and between incumbent and new players once the NTC granted more mobile-phone service licences.
Newcomers, which have to start building market share from nothing, would face difficulties in acquiring |subscribers if existing players with |large subscriber bases could use such on-net promotions to woo new subscribers.
Advanced Info Service was among the first to offer the on-net call rate, in 2007, in a bid to stimulate call traffic among its subscribers and reduce interconnection-fee payments to other networks.
The NTC looked into on-net calls in 2007 out of concern such a marketing practice would put smaller players at a disadvantage.
However, today all cellular operators have adopted similar on-net call strategies.
The NTC promulgated its interconnection regulations in late 2006, requiring the networks of callers to pay a fee to the networks of receivers at bilaterally agreed-upon rates.
The more their networks send call traffic to other networks, the more interconnection fees they must pay to those destination networks.