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Published on April 9, 2008

TT&T said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand the arbitration panel had ruled that TOT would have to pay it Bt23.777 billion, plus interest for using a special service through TT&T's network.

TOT is required to pay the charges from April 1, 2005 until the end of the concession agreement in 2018.

TOT senior executive vice president Suthep Srisuwan yesterday said the telephone authority was expected to appeal to the administrative court next week.

TOT has been using the TT&T network for cellular operators.

TT&T operates a fixed telephone service nationwide, except in Bangkok and the metropolitan area, which is under a TOT concession.

The company's share price closed at Bt1.20, up from Bt0.92 the previous trading day.

TT&T executive vice president Prasitchai Kritsanayunyong yesterday said the company would use money from the case to improve its network.

It had spent Bt1 billion every year on the network rollout and on improving services.

He said TOT had earned Bt124 billion through the access charge from 1993 to 2005.

Since 1993, TT&T had paid Bt37.15 billion in concession fees to TOT and the assets it had transferred to TOT under the build-transfer-operate system were worth Bt57 billion.

TT&T has paid 40 per cent of the revenue as a concession fee to TOT.

This year TT&T was targeting Bt8 billion in revenue, up from Bt7 billion last year. Its debts currently stand at Bt19 billion.

TOT and its private telecom concessionaires, including TT&T and True Corp, have several pending legal disputes.

In 2005, the administrative court ruled to suspend TOT's authority to regulate TT&T, citing that regulatory power now resided solely with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

The ruling was a response to a case filed in 2003 by TT&T, questioning the legitimacy of TOT's regulatory power after it became a private company in 2002.

After the ruling, TOT appealed to the upper court.

In 2005, the arbitration panel dealt a blow to TOT by ruling that it must pay Bt9.17 billion to True Corp, its other private telecom concessionaire, for using its network, in a case similar to TT&T's.

TOT reacted by appealing the case with the administrative court.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation