"The industry is in a mess," said the minister when he stepped up to the podium to speak on the topic "Telecom Reform and Plans for the Digital Economy" at the "Open House with Economic Ministers" seminar yesterday at the Intercontinental Hotel.

He said the sector had been fraught with conflict of interest and political interference, and so he would set up a committee to gather information on the competitive situation, state concessions and access charge, including the actual losses and gains to private and state telecom companies from the charge.

"Then I will publish a white paper of what we find before seeing what I can do to rectify the problem. But there's no happy solution for all," he said.

On Thursday, Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move filed a joint complaint against Advanced Info Service with the ministry and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

DTAC and True Move asked them to solve key competition issues they regarded as benefiting AIS, including the access charge and TOT's reduction of the revenue-sharing formula for AIS's prepaid call service.

All of CAT Telecom private cellular concession holders have paid an access charge to TOT for connecting to different networks via TOT's facilities. DTAC and True Move said that as AIS has been exempted from the TOT charge, since it operates under a concession

from TOT, the market leader has a cost advantage.

Sigve Brekke, CEO of DTAC, said he was willing to cooperate with the ICT minister by providing information.

AIS's executive team, led by CEO Somprasong Boonyachai, will hold a press conference on Monday to clarify all the points raised by DTAC and True Move.

Sitthichai recently said he would allow private telecoms to ask him to convert their concession if they believed the concession had impeded their ability to compete.

Private telecoms have long wanted to exit their concessions and come under an NTC licence, because they no longer want to pay the concession fee to the state agencies, which they regard as their competitors.

Another problem is that the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has yet to be formed to regulate the broadcasting industry.

By law, both the NTC and NBC must manage the spectrum together, assigning new bands and prescribing the uses of the spectrum. Without the NBC, nothing has been done. Sitthichai said he was thinking of combining both regulators, given the convergence in telecommunications and broadcasting technologies.

To gear Thailand towards a digital economy, the Kingdom should promote both wireline and wireless broadband-Internet access and digital content and the e-government project, he said.

Sitthichai said now that the country had 34 million mobile-phone users, 7 million telephone subscribers and 700,000 broadband customers, broadband-Internet users would grow exponentially each year.

Sirivish Toomgum

 The Nation