He said yesterday that the exit of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family from the largest telecom holding, Shin Corp Plc, would make it easier for the state agency to seek partnerships to develop the broadband, wireless, cellular 3G service.

He added that TOT had been in talks with Japan's NTT DoCoMo on the same deal.

TOT and CAT Telecom Plc jointly own Thai Mobile, which operates the 1900MHz cellular service. The spectrum is a standard platform for developing 3G services.

Thai Mobile is the only local cellular operator with ownership of the 1900MHz spectrum, which was granted to it by the now defunct frequency-allocation panel many years ago.

The CAT board has already approved a plan by CAT to sell its joint ownership of the 1900MHz spectrum and its share in Thai Mobile to TOT.

Teerawit said TOT would ask the Information and Communications Technology Ministry and its 100-per-cent shareholder the Finance Ministry to jointly evaluate the price of the CAT spectrum ownership and the share in Thai Mobile. Earlier TOT proposed to CAT that it buy the ownership and share for a combined value of Bt1.3 billion and would be responsible for Thai Mobile's debt. CAT rejected the proposal.

Teerawit said TOT would seek a new chief executive, chief marketing officer and chief finance officer for Thai Mobile soon. TOT has set aside a budget of around Bt10 billion for Thai Mobile to roll out the 3G network in major areas within the next couple of years as part of its plan to become both a 3G network-provider and an operator.

"We'll spend around Bt6 billion in the first year on the network roll-out. Any telecom operator which is interested in offering 3G service can lease the network from us, which will save them huge costs," Teerawit said.

He added that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) had agreed with the TOT plan to become a 3G network-provider and operator when TOT informed the NTC of its plan early this week.

The TOT's move is to cash on the possibility that the NTC will be unable to award the 3G licence to the other telecom operators within the next few years due to the lack of a National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The telecom law requires both regulatory bodies to jointly allocate new frequencies in appropriate spectrums.

Shortly after its establishment, the NBC was dissolved when the Central Administrative Court ruled last November that the selection of 14 candidates for NBC seats had been unconstitutional. Reselection could take a year.

However, the NTC is seeking a means to grant the 3G licences soon in view of the concern about disruption of progress in the telecom industry.

In a separate matter, last year TOT paid a total of Bt1.2 billion in regulatory fees, of which Bt271 million was telecom excise to the Excise Department, Bt258.6 million as a number fee and Bt682 million for the licence from the NTC. The state agency posted revenue of Bt60.293 billion and Bt6.682 billion net profit.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation