CAT board to decide on True Move's 3G fate
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CAT board to decide on True Move's 3G fate

Deals may be scrapped if terms break laws

The board of CAT Telecom will review its controversial 3G contracts with True Corporation, the result of which will determine whether it would move forward with the cooperation or scrap the deals.

The revision will begin once the board receives the results of a fact-finding from management and operations heads, said a CAT board director.

The source sexpressed doubt that the state enterprise received anything in return from the contracts.

The source pointed out the clause that put CAT's 850-megahertz frequency to exclusive use under the contracts.

This enables BFKT (Thailand), which owns Hutch mobile service, to procure cellular towers and signal system on CAT's behalf to provide 3G service using the high-speed packet access technology (HSPA).

Concerns have been raised about how BFKT has exclusive control of the frequency and whether such grant breached Section 45 of the Frequency Allocation Act, as it does not have a business licence to provide network rental service.

Others question whether the contracts violated Section 46 of the same law.

That section prohibits licence holders including CAT and TOT Plc to grant the right to manage spectrum to other parties.

The True-CAT contracts are being probed by several state agencies including the Administrative Court, the Information and Communication Technology Ministry and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

Terdsak Muenkaew, a CAT director, said all board members acknowledged the details of the deals from management.

"We are studying thoroughly again the contract details in order to come up with a conclusion," he said.

Another board director said the True-CAT contracts, which was made in January 2011 under the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, allowed True to provide 3G service by upgrading its network into HSPA.

"The current ambiguity of our 3G deals caused more harm than good to CAT. We need to make a clear-cut decision whether to move forward or scrap the deals," he said.

He added that the revision will begin when the new chief executive, Kittisak Sriprasert, takes the helm next month.

Mr Kittisak has been approved by the board to lead CAT, succeeding Jirayuth Rungsrithong, who resigned on Dec 15.

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