(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thailand's TOT has told the supplier of its billing system to assess the value of the remaining four years of its billing contract worth 1.2 billion baht ($32.3 million), and of its software, before scrapping the deal.
The ultimatum to the supplier, Telemetics, follows months of malfunctions by the billing system since it started operating in April last year. Air Marshal Somchai Thean-anat, the TOT president, has taken the action in the face of growing evidence that Telemetics is unable to live up to its agreement for both technical and financial reasons.
TOT signed a five-year deal worth 1.2 billion baht to lease the system from Telemetics in October 2003. Under the contract, TOT is to pay 19 million baht ($530,000) a month to Telemetics. The system was supposed to allow TOT to classify customers according to their phone-usage patterns so that it could better serve their needs.
Telemetics handled hardware integration while CSG Systems and Accenture provided software. AM Somchai said that the evaluation was a first step toward scrapping the contract. He said TOT was seeking a valuation so that it could buy out Telemetics and operate the system by itself. In order to prevent disruption during the transition period, he said that TOT would also procure another system as a standby.
AM Somchai said the Telemetics system had problems from the start. They included billing errors and unmatched call data records (CDR) that involved more than 70,000 numbers. As well, he said, Telemetics also had encountered financial problems, resulting in disruptions in the purchase of equipment. But AM Somchai said that TOT had to be cautious in scrapping the contract, particularly as it related to technology transfer. If the contract was scrapped and Telemetics pulled out all its staff, it would cause even more problems with the billing system, he said. TOT was currently training its staff to handle the system after Telemetics pulled out, he added.
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