(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thai mobile operator AIS broke its silence to respond to rival mobile phone operators' accusations of unfair competition, saying the claims were one-sided and had tarnished its corporate image.
It called on its rivals to stop spreading hostile stories and threatened to take legal action over damage to its reputation.
It said it would also ask Thailand's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to investigate whether the earlier sale of radio bandwidth by DTAC to True Move and Digital Phone was justified.
Second-ranked DTAC and No. 3 True Move last week accused AIS of having benefited at the expense of its competitors from revisions to its concession from the state telecom enterprise TOT.
AIS executive chairman Somprasong Boonyachai said the comments did not tell the whole story.
'We have been silent all along but now it's time to speak the truth because our rivals chose to speak only about what they thought would be beneficial to them,' he said at a news conference. 'We are consulting with our legal advisers to see what court action could be taken because now we are already being branded as a bad guy in society.'
He explained that the concession agreements, AIS with TOT, and DTAC and True Move with CAT Telecom, had been signed at different times and under different terms and that AIS had no influence over other companies' agreements.
No one forced DTAC and True Move to sign their agreements and if they wanted to make changes they should approach CAT Telecom, he said.
AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said he would ask the NTC to investigate the sale of bandwidth to True Move and Digital Phone by DTAC.
© 2006 Bangkok Post
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