TOT Plc says it will quickly dust off its three big telecom network investment projects that were shelved due to the dissolution of parliament after prolonged political strife.
President Yongyuth Wattanasin said TOT will accelerate activities on its three pending projects after receiving a clear signal from the National Council for Peace and Order that it would allow all state enterprises to continue their operations and pending investment plans.
"Our enterprise can now move forward as planned after struggling for several months," he said. "We're now a conflict-free organisation with no political divide."
The state telecoms enterprise was in urgent need of a government budget to finance the three pending investment projects and generate new, sustained revenue streams to offset vanishing concession revenue.
A delay in budget approvals affected TOT's financial status as the caretaker government could not endorse any new investment projects for state enterprises.
TOT cannot book concession revenue as its own after Dec 20 under the 2010 Frequency Allocation Act. The state enterprise must pass its concession revenue to the state coffers instead.
Mr Yongyuth said the three core projects need to be endorsed by the ministerial cabinet for approval soon if TOT wants its new service operations to begin this year. The projects are the third-generation (3G) network expansion's second phase and two projects to install fibre-optic networks.
TOT hopes to install an additional 13,000 to 15,000 3G base stations nationwide, up from 5,320 now, in a drive to increase revenue. The state enterprise is seeking a private partner for cooperation on the second phase of its 3G mobile services.
The two fibre-optic projects worth 37 billion baht are needed for TOT's role as a network service provider. The state plans to install 2 million fibre-to-the-home ports.
TOT's management executives will hold a meeting soon to consider which projects will be priorities.