NTC urged to curb 3G price war

DTAC has urged the National Telecommunications Commission to prevent TOT Plc from starting a price war with the launch of its 3G service next month.

DTAC made the call after the state telecom enterprise announced it would launch 3G services in Bangkok on Dec 3 with cut-price tariffs to lure customers from existing 2G services.

CEO Tore Johnsen said TOT must sign agreements on interconnection charges with all operators before launching the new service to comply with fair competition regulations for 3G.

Interconnection charges are fees operators charge each other for handling calls across networks.

The rules state all 3G operators must sign interconnection charge agreements for a level playing field, he said.

Only AIS, DTAC and True Move have signed interconnection payments with a termination rate _ paid by the carrier of the outgoing call to the receiving service provider _ of one baht per minute.

Mr Johnsen said DTAC has handled call traffic from TOT, CAT Telecom and Hutch without receiving one baht in interconnection payments.

"It is the duty for NTC to ensure operators that IC (interconnection charges) is working in Thailand with all operators joining the system,'' he said.

He warned TOT not to slash prices as it should be mindful of government revenue payments as a state enterprise.

Mr Johnsen also urged the NTC to start the 3G auction as soon as possible as Thailand is lagging behind regional countries in implementation.