(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thai mobile operator DTAC threatened to cut off telephone lines of its existing inactive customers if the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) does not immediately grant it three million new numbers.
The threat came after DTAC had waited for months for the NTC to allocate new numbers. The regulator, meanwhile, explained that it needed to consider matters carefully before allocating any new numbers to make the best use of national resources.
Delays in the issuing of new numbers are common for the local mobile phone industry, with customers always put at risk from operators' threats.
'If the NTC board could not approve the three million new numbers today, we'll be forced to begin cutting off lines of our existing inactive customers who have made no outgoing calls for one year, starting from next month,' said Sigve Brekke, CEO of DTAC.
'Also, we would have to stop our cheap promotional campaigns due to an expected shortage of numbers,' he added.
However, Suranand Wongwitayakamjorn, the NTC secretary-general, said that the commission would be able to allocate new numbers to both DTAC and AIS next week, albeit not necessarily in the requested quantities.
Suranand also attributed the delay to the lack of information provided by the companies to back their requests.
DTAC and AIS asked for three million new numbers each.
Brekke said DTAC expected to face a shortage of new numbers again, as the 1.5 million new numbers that it obtained in November were expected to be sold out by the end of this month.
© 2007 Bangkok Post
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