The board of state-owned telco TOT corporation has resigned amid controversy over a rogue exchange and political interference in the 3G expansion project.
All eight appointed board members - including chairman Panthep Jamrasromran - have resigned, leaving only the five representatives of various government departments still serving.
The remaining board lacks quorum and thus cannot proceed with the phase two of TOT’s 3G project until a new board is appointed.
TOT had previously announced a long-delayed three-billion baht ($97.3 million) expansion project encompassing 12,000 base stations and 2,000 LTE stations awarded to Samart and Loxley.
Political interference had reached breaking point with the huge budgets involved in the 3G expansion and free Wi-Fi projects.
More importantly was the discovery in late August of a rogue exchange that was connected to TOT’s network. Reports say that three former TOT executives were behind it.
Panthep said that the exchange was costing the country dearly and that the matter had been forwarded to the attorney-general despite what he said were considerable difficulties.
He said that the exchange remains in operation and the people behind the theft were very brave to continue stealing even though the existence of the exchange had been made public. He said that many officials were receiving huge pay-offs to make the operation of the rogue exchange possible.