Auditor-General's office tells CAT to explaIn 'hasty' True deals

By USANEE MONGKOLPORN

THE NATION

The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) yesterday wrote to the CAT Telecom board asking it to either review its plans to jointly develop 3G services with two True Corp subsidiaries or answer 14 questions regarding the deals.

The letter was addressed to CAT chairman Wisut Srisupan. The OAG also notified Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and ICT minister Chuti Krairiksh that it had written to CAT.

True Corp chief executive officer Supachai Chearavanont yesterday said the company had done nothing wrong and could clarify all doubts.

"Soon things will get clearer," he said.

According to the OAG letter, the CAT deals with True to pave the way for their joint development of the 3G-High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) service seemed to have been made in an unusually hasty manner and some contracts still lacked key details.

The way in which the deals were made has raised doubts over whether there was an attempt to circumvent the 1992 Public-Private Joint Venture Act and prevent a fair bid process that would maximise benefits for CAT. The deals might have breached the 1999 Act governing the submission of bids to government agencies.

As a result of these concerns, the OAG asked the CAT board to either review the project to prevent possible damage or answer 14 questions to make the facts clearer.

Supachai said he was not worried that the deals would be revised or terminated by the state authorities, claiming the company had done the right thing.

CAT signed 12 contracts with True subsidiaries Real Move and Real Future on January 27.

The four main deals include the contract for BFKT (Thailand) of Real Future to lease 3G equipment to CAT; Real Move's reselling of the planned 3G HSPA service; BFKT's leasing of the code division multiple access (CDMA) network in 25 provinces to CAT; and the marketing by Real Move's Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia of the CDMA service in 25 provinces for CAT.

This week the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) also called in CAT officials to be questioned about the deals, since CAT operates under licence by the NTC.

NTC commissioner Sudharma Yoonaidharma said the commission had to examine whether the deals would result in market dominance and if the 3G service wholesale-resale contract CAT awarded to Real Move complied with NTC regulations.

High-ranking CAT executives have said many times that the deals are legal. ICT minister Chuti also told CAT executives to support the deals as they would benefit CAT's business.

-- The Nation 2011-02-11

High-ranking CAT executives have said many times that the deals are legal.

Oh - must be true then

Hasty? People have been screaming for years to have 3G in Thailand!

The amount of bureaucracy just makes me want to throw up. Deals, talks, over and over for what is basically the right to transmit packets of data over the electromagnetic spectrum. ugh....

Edited February 11, 201115 yr by hungryhippo

Hmmmm.

And of course, TrueCorp being part of CP, has apparently no voice to the top of the government. I sometimes wonder why they even bother to try to investigate this type of private/government licensing agreement in Thailand.

Just accept that it won't help the consumers, and that True will make a boat load of money out of the deal. Seems that being CEO of AIS makes you about as popular a root canal. TIT after all.

I think people are quite willing to overlook a little telecom corruption, if they get 3G. Perhaps that was Thaksin's ultimate downfall - no 3G lol

I think people are quite willing to overlook a little telecom corruption, if they get 3G. Perhaps that was Thaksin's ultimate downfall - no 3G lol

At the rate they are going 5G will be in wide spread use before Thailand get's 3G.

Hmmmm.

And of course, TrueCorp being part of CP, has apparently no voice to the top of the government. I sometimes wonder why they even bother to try to investigate this type of private/government licensing agreement in Thailand.

Just accept that it won't help the consumers, and that True will make a boat load of money out of the deal. Seems that being CEO of AIS makes you about as popular a root canal. TIT after all.

And who happens to sit on the board of directors of TRUE ?

Hmmmm.

And of course, TrueCorp being part of CP, has apparently no voice to the top of the government. I sometimes wonder why they even bother to try to investigate this type of private/government licensing agreement in Thailand.

Just accept that it won't help the consumers, and that True will make a boat load of money out of the deal. Seems that being CEO of AIS makes you about as popular a root canal. TIT after all.

And who happens to sit on the board of directors of TRUE ?

Do a little digging it isn't that hard. Most major companies in Thailand do this type of thing. Business and politics in Thailand is probably the most entwined of any of the country's in the region.

This news report reminds me that at a dinner in Bangkok in January 2011 somebody mentioned that True was now the best Internet provider in Bangkok. I believe it was the chairman of MCOT who said that. I wonder if he knew something in advance about the 3G deal between CAT and True.