Sudharma Yoonaidharma, a member of the National Telecommunications Commission, said last week that the NTC understood that the interconnection charge regime was new to the country so conflicts could arise.

"That's why we had to draw up regulations for dispute settlement," he said.

The rules allow parties to take their argument to a court or arbitration committee. They must keep the NTC informed about the progress of the case.

But the NTC can refuse to proceed with a ruling if it finds that the ruling has a flaw, such as going against the public interest, or exceeding the authority of the court.

The interconnection-charge regime requires sharing of voice and data revenues between two networks handling a call.

Telecoms have already held talks to finalise the rates they will charge each other.

TOT Plc will be hardest hit, as the two private cellular operators on concessions from CAT Telecom Plc - Total Access Communication and True Move - want to stop paying an access charge to TOT and pay only the interconnection charge.

All private operators on a CAT cellular concession have been paying an access charge to TOT for connecting them to other networks via TOT's facilities.

TOT acting president Chamras Tantreesukhon said the state agency was set to discuss with CAT about what to do with the access charge after the implementation of the interconnection charge.

TOT does not need to talk directly with the private cellular firms as CAT is in charge of their concessions, he added.