Overseas Phone Rates To Drop By 70% From January

[george]

OVERSEAS PHONE CALLS:

Rates set to drop by up to 70% next month

CAT, TOT join to offer new service; wrinkles remain

Callers will save 20-70 per cent off present international rates when a new tariff goes into effect next month.

At a meeting of telecom parties on Tuesday, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry concluded that CAT Telecom is to launch the new overseas call service, using the 001 prefix, which will initially extend to 27 destinations, CAT and TOT sources said yesterday.

CAT and TOT will co-launch the budget service on their joint network and split revenues on an even basis, they said.

Earlier ICT Minister Surapong Suebwonglee had ordered CAT and TOT to compete against each other but he changed his mind, saying collaboration would benefit the country more.

An ICT ministry source said Surapong wanted to end the bad blood between the two state agencies caused by the prospect of their butting heads in the same market.

Surapong will announce the new rates on Monday.

The state telecoms are expected combine their international traffic to boost their bargaining power when negotiating leases of international circuits.

Under the new tariff both stand to gain and lose. Today, TOT gets paid a uniform Bt6 per minute from CAT to carry a call to a foreign destination over TOT's domestic network, no matter which country is called. CAT has no domestic network of its own, so it has to depend on TOT for the in-country portion of a call abroad.

TOT routes the call to CAT's international gateway, at which point CAT takes over the call.

The new tariff sets a graduated schedule of charges. For example, if someone calls the United States for Bt9 per minute, TOT will earn Bt4.50 per minute.

But if the call is to Hong Kong at Bt14 per minute, TOT will receive Bt7 per minute, a TOT executive said.

A CAT executive said that in the future, CAT will no longer have to pay Bt6 per minute to TOT all the time, but a variable charge, making it easier to design a discount calling plan.

But both state agencies still have to discuss with all private telephone companies about sharing overseas call revenues under the new tariff.

Currently, when subscribers of private operators make an overseas call through CAT, CAT has to pay Bt6 per minute of the call to them, as it pays to TOT.

CAT will also have to consider what to do with e-Fone, its own Internet-based, low-cost overseas calling service, the CAT executive said.

"The rates to be introduced next year are close to those of e-Fone. CAT has to think how to differentiate '009' from the new '001' service to woo users," he said.

TOT is facing the same dilemma with its "007" overseas service covering neighbouring countries, a TOT executive said

"We already invested a bunch on the service, which has a lot of employees. It's likely we'll cancel it if we don't have a better choice," he said.

TOT has already signed a memorandum of understanding with a Malaysian carrier to lease its international network. TOT had intended to offer another overseas call service next year featuring the 008 prefix that would have covered destinations around the globe.

"Again, we have to abort the plan," he added.

--The Nation 2003-12-26

[Phil Conners]

More money for TOT when the international part is more expensive? Where on earth is the logic in that? It's the same distance TOT has to carry the call (from subscriber to CAT). Sheesh!

How about finally privatizing your telco industry and get with the rest of the world instead of plodding around in that 1950's style government run telco.

ADSL costs from 4,500 THB per month, dialup internet is still by the minute.

The rest of the world - even Brazil which in many ways are inferior to Thailand - can offer ADSL for an equivalent of 1,000 THB per month.

In spite of excuses used the ONLY reason for the expensive telco costs in Thailand are ... lack of competition!

[mrpager2000]

Its a real non event! the rates are going down to what are already available simply by dialing 001-809 and the number. Dont pull your phones out just yet. There will be no 9 baht/min calls until 2006, the writer of the article used 9 baht as an example in doing the math for the rate change between the CAT and TOT.

here's the most relevent quote which demonstates that rates will be near or higher than what CAT is already offering

"The rates to be introduced next year are close to those of e-Fone. " so if you want the new low rates they are already here folks.

if you want really really low rates use CallOnThe.Net or Net2Phone, They sell devices that allow you to use any normal phone line NO PC or ADSL required to make calls from 1 baht/ min with darn good quality. I bought mine at www. CallOnThe.Net for $149.00 USD good luck and happy holidays.

[SymS]

You could try Packet8. It cost 20 dollars a month and you can make as many

phone calls as you want to USA and Canada at no extra charge, and to other countries from 2 cents a minute. You can also be called from anywhere, the people would just have to dial an american number. You will need a broadband connection though. It can work on dialup but no so well.

You can see reviews at http://www.dslreports.com/comments/2413

SymS

[eric1000]

OVERSEAS PHONE CALLS:

Rates set to drop by up to 70% next month

2003-12-26

How will this affect calling IN to Thailand ?

compared with calling Japan ,HongKong , Malaysia ,Taiwan etc

Thailand is very expensive .