TOT agrees to talk with DTAC
KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA

The board of TOT said yesterday that it would abide by the Central Administrative Court order to open negotiations on interconnection rates with DTAC but insisted that the old access charge regime was still valid.

''Opening talks with DTAC doesn't mean that we accept the scrapping of access charges. We just wanted to end the fine from the NTC,'' said board chairman Teerawut Boonyasophon.

Directors of the state telecom enterprise met yesterday after the court turned down an appeal from TOT seeking to overturn an earlier order from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to hold interconnection talks. The court instead ordered TOT to negotiate an interconnection contract with DTAC, the country's second largest mobile operator. Interconnection is a framework for sharing toll revenues from calls routed across different operators' networks. But TOT has refused to acknowledge the authority of the NTC to impose the framework and supersede the terms of existing access-charge agreements under long-term concessions granted to private operators.

Mr Teerawut said TOT would abide by the court's ruling and would pay a fine of 60,000 baht a day to the NTC, starting from February 2008.

However, the NTC has agreed to suspend the fine, beginning yesterday, after receiving confirmation from TOT that it would hold talks with DTAC, he added.

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