Six TOT board members resign over row
Six out of 10 board members of telecom giant TOT, including its chairman, resigned yesterday as the government faced the possible loss of substantial access-charge revenue.
The Central Administrative Court earlier in the day ordered the state enterprise to connect its subscribers and the 1.5 million new phone users of Total Access Communication (DTAC) in order to avoid hassles for consumers. On Wednesday, DTAC asked the court to issue an injunction against TOT's blocking of the new numbers and demanded more than Bt73 million in compensation for damages relating to the dispute, plus Bt15 million per day for lost business. TOT had refused to accept the 1.5 million new phone numbers from DTAC as well as True Move because they stopped paying it the access charge. The court's order remains in effect until its final ruling or decision to lift the injunction. TOT chairman Montree Supaporn said TOT would comply with the court's order by integrating DTAC's new numbers into its system within seven days, but the board had to show responsibility for not ensuring continued income from the access charge and possibly incurring a liability for damages. DTAC and True Move need all other operators to translate their new numbers into their switching systems so that the numbers can be recognised by other networks. Both have already sold their new numbers to subscribers. The two have to yet to pay the quarterly access charge to TOT, which is due on Thursday. DTAC intends to pay TOT the access charge, but at the lower interconnection-charge rate. The access charge is paid by the cellular operators on concessions from CAT Telecom to compensate TOT for providing facilities to connect their subscribers' calls to other networks. However, DTAC and True Move claimed they found a new problem with TOT. Users of their new numbers cannot place calls to a TOT number. Before yesterday their new users could still call a TOT subscriber, but could not receive calls from TOT customers. Montree said it was just a technical glitch. The interconnection charge, introduced recently by the National Telecommunications Commission, requires all operators to share revenues from voice and data calls between their networks on a fair basis. DTAC and True Move say they want to pay only the interconnection charge, instead of paying both the access and interconnection fees. TOT has been earning about Bt14 billion per year from the access charges.
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