The government must first state what it wants to do with Thaicom satellites in order to determine whether their purchase using taxpayer money is worthwhile, appointed senator Anan Woratitipong said yesterday.
Somprasong Boonyachai, executive committee chairman of Shin Corp, the parent company of Thaicom, said he was doubtful if the concession in any case allowed the company to transfer satellite-management rights to other parties.
Anan, who is deputy chairman of the Senate committee for science, technology and communications, said Thaicom satellites were already controlled by the concession. Hence, if the concessionaire breached the contract, the government could take the satellites back anyway.
If the government wants to take back one or more of the satellites for business operation, he is unsure whether it can compete well in the sector against foreign satellite operators.
As for national security, he said Thai national-security agencies had measures to prevent others from stealing key security information, and the government had laws to handle the broadcasting of programmes or images that incited disunity.
With the business and national security issues cleared away, the government has no good answer as to why it wants to buy back any of the satellites, Anan said, adding that he thought there was certainly no need to use tax money to do so.
The current satellites' operating lifetime is 15 years, and five years have already lapsed, he added.
Refusing to comment on rumours that government people had profited from the rise in Thaicom's share price, he said trading in satellites should be a matter for the private sector. It is not a basic infrastructure and the government should not therefore invest in it.
Meanwhile, Somprasong said Thaicom had already transferred the satellite assets to the Information and Communications Ministry, so the company is not the owner but is managing them under the ministry's concession.
He said if the government wanted to buy the Thaicom satellite management rights, its concession did not specify it could transfer such rights to any other parties.
He added that he had already talked with Boon Swan Foo, who represents majority holder Temasek Holdings of Singapore on the Shin board, about the matter. Temasek insisted that it needed clear details of the purchase plan and that the purchase would need the approval of the boards of both Shin and Thaicom.
Thaicom was granted a 30-year build-transfer-operate concession from the Transport Ministry in 1991, a concession that now it has operated under the ICT Ministry. It expires in 2021.
Shin, which was founded by family members of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, owns 41.14 per cent of Thaicom. The Shinawatras disposed of their combined 46-per-cent holding in Shin to Temasek in January 2006 in a deal worth Bt73 billion.
Cedar Holdings and Aspen Holdings, both belonging to Temasek, jointly own more than 96 per cent of Shin.
Thaicom currently operates the Thaicom 2 and 5 broadcasting satellites and the iPSTAR broadband satellite.
The government's interest in buying Thaicom's satellite business, citing concerns over national security, has drawn opposition on several fronts on the grounds of whether it is worth doing so.
Sirichoke Sopha, an aide to the prime minister, yesterday said the move would not cost the government dearly, as the Finance Ministry and the ICT Ministry would jointly study the matter thoroughly before moving ahead.
He said the government should buy Thaicom for fear a foreign country could use its satellites to spy on the Kingdom.
A telecom industry source said it was understood that the government wanted to control the satellite-TV industry in order to prevent companies from airing content deemed to pose a threat to national security.
However, satellite-TV operators do not need to use Thaicom but can use any foreign satellite to beam programmes to any compatible dishes in Thailand.
"So, in such a case, will you buy up such foreign satellites, too,"" the source added.
The source said many countries had permitted private firms to operate commercial satellite businesses and they had trusted in the ability of their people to judge what is right or wrong in what can be watched in satellite-based programming.
Former ICT minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom this week said it did not make sense to buy Thaicom for reasons of national security. The company has only Thaicom 5 left, and that will expire soon.
Thaicom's iPSTAR may last longer, but it is not particularly relevant to national security, he said
If it were really concerned about national security, the government should launch its own satellite instead.
Sitthichai said the government did not know how to manage the business on its own and should let a private company run it.