USANEE MONGKOLPORN
THE NATION
CAT TELECOM will propose to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry and to the Cabinet its plan to end disputes with Total Access Communication (DTAC) and set up a joint venture with DTAC, according to the state agency's acting president Surapant Meknavin.
The plan was approved by the Public-Private Joint Venture panel founded under the Article 43 of the public-private joint venture law on Friday.
Surapant believed that the plan would be implemented within the next few months.
Under the plan, both CAT and its concession holder DTAC would end around 10 disputes via the concession, including the disputes over the ownership of 9,000 telecom towers under the concession. He claimed that DTAC had agreed to transfer the towers under the concession to CAT and establish the joint venture together to manage the towers.
CAT would own 51 per cent of the joint venture, while DTAC will secure the remainder. CAT expects that the joint venture would generate about Bt1 billion in revenue per year. The state agency also expects to gain about Bt16 billion as a result of the dispute settlements.
The plan also involves the possible amendment of the DTAC concession in order to end the disputes with CAT and the appraisal of the disputed telecom towers. The plans need approvals from both the ICT Ministry and the Cabinet.
CAT will also send to its board for consideration the plan to jointly provide a 4G wireless broadband service with DTAC on the idled 20MHz of its 1800MHz. The spectrum concession will expire in 2018.
Both CAT and DTAC have reached an agreement in principle on the deal,which involves the DTAC plan to roll out a 4G network coverage in 9,000 sites for CAT. They will also discuss if DTAC will commit to utilising 85 per cent of this network capacity. CAT will assign the rest to its mobile virtual network operator partners to provide cellular services.
DTAC and CAT will discuss the number of assets under this project each will own.
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