They do not want to get stuck with redundant interconnection fees - the existing one to TOT - when they have to pay the upcoming charges under National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) regulations.

The new rules require all telecom operators to share voice and data revenues on calls between two networks.

True Corp president Supachai Chearavanont said his company would open talks with TOT on a possible concession amendment.

"We should switch from the TOT regime to the NTC regime," he said.

TT&T senior vice president Supot Tiarawut said that his company is mulling over a discussion with TOT on the possibility of cutting out its interconnection fee in the concession fee.

Weerachai Patcharopaswong, assistant vice president of Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), said AIS is considering consulting with TOT on the matter but he did not mention a concession amendment.

True and TT&T have paid 16 per cent and 43 per cent of revenues respectively as their concession fee, while AIS's concession fee went up to 30 per cent of revenue this year from 25 per cent last year.

The plan of TOT's concessionaires to stop paying the interconnection charge has imposed a new financial threat to TOT, along with the intention of some of CAT's private cellular concessionaires to stop paying the access charge to TOT.

All CAT's cellular concessionaires have paid the access charge to TOT for connecting to different networks via TOT's facilities. But Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move want to pay only the interconnection charge under the NTC regime.

DTAC and True Move have paid around Bt8 billion and Bt4 billion in annual access charges, respectively, to TOT.

DTAC is unlikely to have to pay much in net interconnection charges under the NTC regime since its network's incoming and outgoing calls are almost even, according to Seamico Securities.

DTAC has over 10 million subscribers and True Move nearly 5 million.

As AIS leads with over 16 million subscribers, it is expected to be the major call receiver and stands to gain interconnection revenues of around Bt5 billion yearly, according to Seamico.

The interconnection charge comprises termination, transit and origination rates. The termination rate is for the network of the outgoing call to pay to the destined network, while the transit rate is for the network of the outgoing call to pay to the transit network.

The origination rate is for a network that takes a call to pay to the network from where the call came from. The rate applies to CAT, which has to share overseas call revenue with the telecom operators that transfer the calls of their subscribers to CAT's overseas call network.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation