Advanced Info Service (AIS) has so far been unable to receive interconnection charges from the other telecom operators, following opposition to the interconnection regulations by its concession owner, TOT.

AIS chief executive Somprasong Boonyachai this week said that meant there would be no interconnection revenues booked in AIS's second-quarter financial results.

The largest cellular operator did not book the interconnection revenues in the first quarter's financial results either, pending a response from TOT on whether AIS could comply with the interconnection regime of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). AIS consulted with TOT on the matter late last year out of concern that the concession contract might be breached.

Somprasong said the state agency only recently replied to AIS, saying it opposed the interconnection regime.

"We don't know what to do, what with TOT opposing the interconnection regulations and the NTC saying we should adopt them," Somprasong said.

Analysts estimate that AIS, with more than 20 million subscribers, is likely to be the net gainer of interconnection-charge revenues totalling Bt3.5 billion a year, given that it is the biggest receiver of incoming calls.

The interconnection-charge regulations enable all telecom operators to connect directly with one another and share voice and data revenues from the calls between their networks on a bilateral and fair basis.

AIS and fellow major cellular operators Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move started recording the call traffic between them in February after signing bilateral interconnection-charge agreements late last year. DTAC and True Move have already booked the interconnection revenues in their first-quarter financial results.

TOT has opposed the interconnection-charge regulations, because they prompted DTAC and True Move to stop paying the network access charge to TOT late last year. Both have adopted the interconnection rules instead.

The access charge is the cost that all three private cellular concessionaires of CAT Telecom - DTAC, True Move and Digital Phone - have paid to TOT for connecting to different networks through TOT facilities. TOT has earned annual access-charge revenues of Bt14 billion.

On Monday, the NTC ordered TOT and DTAC to enter into negotiations on the interconnection agreement within seven days. TOT and CAT recently agreed to take a legal action against DTAC and True Move after they stopped paying the access charge.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation