Thai state-owned CAT Telecom plans to ask the State Enterprise Policy Commission to consider converting concession assets of local mobile operator Total Access Communication (Dtac) into capital for a new joint venture.
Mobile operator Dtac and the…
Thai state-owned CAT Telecom plans to ask the State Enterprise Policy Commission to consider converting concession assets of local mobile operator Total Access Communication (Dtac) into capital for a new joint venture.
Mobile operator Dtac and the commission would own shares in the JV, which would act as an infrastructure holding company, according to The Nation citing a source at the state authority.
The plan aligns with a memorandum of understanding signed by CAT and Dtac last December to establish a cooperative relationship and resolve a dispute over the ownership of telecoms tower assets under concession, the report stated.
The plan would reportedly see CAT convert all Dtac concession assets into the JV, while Dtac would continue to pay annual concession revenue to CAT until 2018.
The Telenor subsidiary has reportedly proposed to have an exclusive right to lease all telecoms network assets under the JV to provide services
Assets under concession include telecoms towers, a fibre optic network, a transmission network and cellular base stations. While most of these have already been transferred to CAT under its build-transfer-operate agreement with Dtac, the latter remains in possession of 10,000 disputed telecoms towers.
CAT acknowledges infrastructure and tower mergers
Meanwhile, CAT’s board has reportedly also acknowledged the commission’s decision to merge telecoms and tower infrastructure belonging to itself and fellow state-owned telco TOT into two new entities, National Infrastructure Co and Neutral Tower Co.
The ICT ministry will now seek a consultant to evaluate CAT and TOT assets, the report added.
CAT, Dtac and the State Enterprise Policy Commission were not immediately available for comment.
