The second phase of TOT's third-generation (3G) network expansion will be put off again until next year, as the state telecom could not decide on its partnership models by last week.
President Yongyuth Wattanasin said TOT needs to amend its partnership contract with Samart I-Mobile (SIM), the 3G arm of Samart Corporation, to obtain a win-win solution.
SIM is the biggest and most active partner among five mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) offering 3G service on behalf of TOT.
An MVNO is a company that provides services but does not have its own mobile network.
TOT has 5,320 3G base stations. It plans an additional 13,000 to 15,000 stations under a second-phase 3G expansion through a partnership deal with a private telecom.
Mr Yongyuth said TOT must carefully select the best partner to ensure success for its 3G expansion.
He predicts a delay of only a few months, causing no damage to the state enterprise's 3G plan.
TOT initially hoped to sign the MVNO contract with SIM in October.
But the Office of the Auditor-General suggested TOT may be at a disadvantage if the state entered into an agreement with SIM without amendments.
A TOT source who asked not to be named disclosed that under the contract, SIM would get 54% of revenue from the state enterprise's 3G services during the 12-year period and TOT 46%.
But the key point of the contract is TOT must provide download speeds of at least 42 Mbps to SIM.
TOT has only 1,000 base stations out of 5,320 with the capacity to deliver 42 Mbps.
"This will force TOT to upgrade its existing 3G network in the first phase to comply with the new contract," said Mr Yongyuth.
"This could take at least 10 megahertz in bandwidth to upgrade."
TOT has only 15 MHz of bandwidth on the 2100-MHz spectrum for providing 3G and eventually 4G.
If TOT upgrades its network, the state enterprise will have only 5 MHz of bandwidth left, insufficient for 4G service.
Mr Yongyuth said TOT is considering two partnership models _ with Advanced Wireless Network (AWN), the 3G arm of mobile operator Advanced Info Service, and with SIM.
AWN proposes offering 3G service under a wholesale-retail contract similar to the partnership deal between CAT Telecom and True Corporation.
In the first nine months of this year, TOT achieved revenue of 40.8 billion baht including concession fees.
Ex-concession fees, revenue was 21.7 billion baht.