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Published on August 4, 2007

This was one of several guidelines recently sent to TOT's board by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, board member Djitt Laowattana said yesterday.

Last month, TOT said it liked the offers from the Chinese government and Japanese telecom network vendor NEC best out of the many proposals it had received for participating in the roll-out of the advanced wireless broadband network.

The ministry's guidelines stipulate that investment must be at the government-to-government level, and telecom equipment suppliers would have to include technology transfers.

"These conditions of the ministry should ensure that the country and TOT gain from the project," Djitt said.

The final guideline is that all the processes must be undertaken with the utmost transparency. Djitt said giant Japanese trading house Marubeni had also recently shown interest in TOT's 3G project.

TOT will have its joint-venture cellular operator, Thai Mobile, carry out the project.

TOT is in the process of acquiring all of CAT Telecom's Bt2.4 billion worth of shares in Thai Mobile.

However, CAT disagrees with TOT's wish to pay CAT in instalments over five years.

Djitt said a possible solution could be for both state agencies to continue running Thai Mobile jointly but that they would have to define their roles clearly, such as which would manage Thai Mobile and which would only hold shares without management rights.

TOT estimates that the 3G-network project will cost Bt17.3 billion, with Bt1.4 billion going to upgrade Thai Mobile's existing GSM network to 3G technology, Bt15.5 billion to roll out the network in greater Bangkok and Bt400 million for networks in six provinces: Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Phuket, Nakhon Ratchasima, Nakhon Sawan and Surat Thani.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation