NEW PHONE NUMBERS : Consortium bids Bt7.5 bn for project

Published on November 11, 2004

TOT keen to trim offer by Siemens-led group to create 560,000 new lines

The Siemens-Thai Mark Solution Technology consortium has bid Bt7.5 billion to provide fixed-line equipment for TOT Corp’s project to create new phone numbers nationwide.

The TOT board yesterday gave the green light for the bid panel to open the consortium’s price envelope.

The consortium is the only one of 10 bidders to make it to the final round.

TOT plans to create 560,000 new phone numbers in three zones: Northeast Bangkok, the East and Northern provinces, plus Central and Southern provinces.

Montri Vachirakernkan, the state agency’s senior executive vice president, said that according to the bid process, TOT’s next step would be to ask the consortium to reduce the price – before a final decision next month.

TOT has set aside a budget of over Bt8 billion for the project, which was approved by the Cabinet last November.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Surapong Suebwonglee said the consortium’s bid had to be compared with the phone-number investment costs of fixed-line carriers True Corp and TT&T.

If the price is too high, the bid is likely to be reviewed, he said.

But a telecom-industry source questioned comparing the consortium’s bid with True and TT&T’s previous costs given that the two Thai firms have not made any new phone-number investments for years.

He said that 10 years ago TT&T spent around Bt40,000 to create one new number while True spent about Bt26,000. At present each new number costs around Bt10,000, he said.

Nukul Bawornsirinukul, head of TOT’s labour union, said he did not want to see the project cancelled.

One telecom industrial source said TOT had to speed up the project before the national telecom regulator started formulating the new market regulation.

“TOT has no right to engage in any new project after the regulator creates the new rule,’’ the source said.

“It has to wait for a new licence from the telecom regulator first before making any new telecom investment.”

Meanwhile, the TOT board put off selecting the agency’s new president till the end of the month due to a lack of information, board chairman Sathit Limpongpan said yesterday.

The panel selecting the new president submitted a final list of six candidates to the board, but provided no background details on the hopefuls, he said.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation

That is good news for me as I live in the North and I have only been waiting 15 months for TT&T to run a cable 4 1/2 KM.

A friend of mine paid to get a phone line run in and it cost him 3,000 baht per km.

I have a couple of mobiles and GPRS so I guess I can wait a while longer.

Unless you need a land line for internet, it is better to buy a mobile.