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Thailand: Operators urge NBTC to honour fee pledge
Mobile operators are urging the telecom regulator to comply with its earlier pledge to reduce the universal service obligation (USO) fee rate and waive the mobile phone numbering fee for three months as part of incentives for carriers that were asked to provide 10 gigabytes of free data to subscribers in April last year to help users suffering during the first outbreak.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) was asked to reduce the USO fee from 2.5% of operators’ yearly revenue to 2% as a new structure.
The fee is used to support public access to TV, radio and telecom services, and enhance human resources and technology for the industry.
The carriers also want the NBTC to keep its promise to waive the mobile phone number fee of 1.5 baht per number per month it collects from them.
The Telecommunications Association of Thailand submitted a letter to the NBTC office asking it to follow through with its commitment. A similar request by True Move H Universal Communication was also sent to the NBTC office.
An executive from a major mobile operator who requested anonymity said the NBTC promised these two measures as an incentive for carriers to offer assistance to subscribers coping with the pandemic last year.
The operators, at the request of the NBTC, agreed to provide 10GB of data for free in April. Some 12 million mobile users benefited from the giveaway.
The executive said the assistance was subsidised by the carriers, with the NBTC office promising to pay them back according to their operation cost, along with the two incentives.
“The USO fee of 2.5% of a carrier’s mobile service revenue is too high,” the executive said.
Every five years, the management of the USO fund must set out a clear plan for the fund spending and ways to draw money to the fund.
The USO fee rate must be adjusted in line with the fund’s plan for telecom service development, the executive said.
The NBTC is about to start drafting the next five-year USO plan, which starts next year.
As the USO fund is flush with 7 billion baht, this shows the fee was too high and the sum did not match the fund’s plan from 2017 to 2021, the executive said.
A USO fee of 2% is more reasonable, said the executive.
A waiver of the mobile phone numbering fee for three months would not have a significant impact on the NBTC’s earnings, compared with what the carriers had to spend to help people during the pandemic last year, said the executive.
Operators expect approval of the two incentives by the existing NBTC board rather than waiting for the new board, whose members are being selected by the Senate, the executive said.
Sutisak Tantayotin, deputy secretary-general of the NBTC, said the commission has yet to compensate the operators for their data giveaway last year.
Some 1.2 billion baht is expected to be offered in compensation.
The sum is slated to be completely disbursed by next month, said Mr Sutisak.
The delay was the result of verifying call data records and data usage, he said.
NBTC management needed clear figures for service costs before forwarding the figure to the NBTC board for approval, said Mr Sutisak.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2068303/operators-urge-nbtc-to-honour-fee-pledge