Thailand and Laos have formed a working panel aimed at managing wireless telecommunication connections along their common border and at academic co-operation.

The panel also aimed to resolve problems of interference in cellular communications and radio broadcasts by community radio in border areas, said Tassaporn Kate-atisorn, the vice-secretary of the National Telecommunications Commission.

He cited the example of a mobile-phone user making a call from the border of Nong Khai province, where the signal roams the network of a Laotian operator, while users in Laos also roamed the network of a Thai operator on the other side of the border.

This was unlawful, he said.

The working group would first meet at the government agency level, then other co-operation would follow, he said.

He admitted that it was impossible to block radio signals crossing the border because there were many radio stations.

Gen Choochart Promprasit, the NTC chairman, said frequency usage in border areas posed problems because of signal strength. Meetings could lessen the problem and allow radio stations to work with each other, he said.

Laos last year approved private operators to launch third-generation (3G) service, something Thailand still does not have. Lao Telecom, a state company, will be the first to offer 3G among the three licensees, said Khamlouat Sidlakone, Minister of the Prime Minister's Office and president of the National Authority of Post and Telecommunications Commission of Laos.

There are five mobile-phone operators in Laos.

Snith Xaphakdy, director-general of the Department of Planning and Co-operation of Laos, said mobile operators had invested more than 100 million baht in 3G in Laos. Laos now has 13,000 users of 3G service from a mobile customer base of 900,000. It expects the user base to rise to one million within two months.