(The Nation via NewsEdge) Thai mobile operators DTAC and True Move have filed a joint complaint with the country's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Information and Communications Technology Ministry against rival AIS.
Officials of the second- and third-largest cellular operators told a joint press conference they had asked both bodies to resolve four issues, including revenue-sharing reduction, access-charge waiver, price dumping and number portability, that they regard as hindering competition and allegedly benefiting market leader AIS.
'It's a new era right now with the NTC in place, so we think it's time to call for the elimination of unfairness in the industry,' said True Move CEO Supachai Chearavanont.
NTC chairman Choochart Promphrasid said the NTC did not have jurisdiction to look into disputes related to agreements between state concession owners and concessionaires.
DTAC and True Move said TOT's revision of the revenue-sharing rate on AIS's prepaid-call service had lowered the market leader's operating costs and enabled it to make cost savings of about Bt85 billion.
The story began in 2000, when DTAC, which holds a cellular concession from CAT Telecom, asked TOT to change the access charge on its prepaid phone revenues to 18 % a month instead of a flat monthly rate of Bt200 per user.
The access charge is what all holders of CAT cellular concessions, including True Move, must pay to TOT for accessing other networks via TOT's facilities.
Shortly afterwards, AIS asked TOT to change its revenue-sharing formula for prepaid revenues and keep it at 20% a month throughout its remaining concession period.
Under the original 25-year cellular concession granted in 1990, TOT's share of AIS's prepaid revenues was to rise from 20% initially to 25% and later 30%.
TOT granted the requests of both DTAC and AIS in April 2001.
© 2006 The Nation
© 2006 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved