(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thailand's second and third-ranked mobile phone operators DTAC and True Move have petitioned the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) over alleged price-dumping by market leader AIS, which is offering rates as low as 1 baht ($0.026) per call.
The companies said the AIS marketing campaign, announced this week was in breach of competition rules and international market dominance standards.
Gen Choochart Promprasit, the NTC chairman, said that although the existing telecom business law did not stipulate minimum prices but only ceiling prices to prevent collusion by operators and protect consumers, he would summon AIS for discussions.
If AIS is damaging the industry and obstructing fair competition, the NTC will have to ask for its co-operation to resolve the problem, he said.
'Given a more than 50% market share, overseas in particular, AIS could not be allowed to undercut tariff rates which could destroy smaller rivals,' said Supachai Chearavanont, True Move's CEO.
Supachai said AIS's concession fees were almost 50% lower than those of True Move, as the company did not need to pay access charges of 200 baht ($) per number per month.
True, the parent company of True Move, has a combined debt of 82 billion baht ($2.1 billion), of which 30 billion baht ($798 million) was incurred by True Move.
He acknowledged that the price war would do more harm than good, as customers who count on mobile phones for business will suffer from connection problems due to network congestion.
© 2006 Bangkok Post
© 2006 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved