NTC chairman Choochart Promphrasid said the allocation filled part of DTAC's request for 3.5 million additional phone numbers.

Recently, the commission awarded 1.5 million additional mobile-phone numbers to True Move after it requested 2 million more.

Advanced Info Service (AIS) is in the process of applying for an additional 2 million mobile-phone numbers.

The NTC awarded the extra numbers to DTAC and True Move under its existing interim number-allocation plan. The regulator is expected to introduce a permanent allocation plan in the next few months.

Telecom operators have complained about the interim policy, which requires that they apply for additional phone numbers only when they are down to 50,000. They say this is impractical, because they can sell as many as 50,000 in one day.

Moreover, the interim policy requires they present their plans for requesting additional phone numbers, along with their reasons for doing so, to their competitors each time they want more.

The NTC charges Bt2 per number per month for the additional numbers and Bt1 per number per month for existing numbers.

All mobile-phone operators are in urgent need of additional phone numbers, because of aggressive campaigns for new subscribers upcountry.

AIS and DTAC have more than 17.5 million and 10 million subscribers, respectively, while True Move has more than 5 million.

Usanee Mongkolporn

 The Nation