Source - Bangkok Post
By: KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA

Newspaper section: BusinessCAT Telecom's new board of directors has advised its management to draw up a contingency plan in case the state telecom enterprise's revenue from concessions granted to private operators happens to evaporate.

The new board chaired by Natti Premrasamee advised management to prepare a three-year plan showing how it could generate income, said Pol Lt Gen Pongpas Pongcharoen, the board's spokesman.

The business plan will focus on providing network convergence services, and on CAT's proposed buyout of the mobile operator Hutch.

In addition, CAT's management was asked to devise an additional business risk plan to show how it could generate revenue if concession money dried up.

The plan must be forwarded to the board by June 12, he said.

It should also study the assets of operators granted concessions on a build-transfer-operate basis to see whether they belonged to CAT or should be returned to the state.

DTAC and True Move are CAT's two largest concessionaires.

The board also decided that the selection of a new president, culled from a field of seven candidates, should come to a conclusion by July.

Candidates will present their vision for CAT to a selection committee chaired by Thaneerat Siripachana, deputy permanent secretary for the Information and Communications Technology ministry, as soon as possible.

CAT deputy president Suchin Puengvor-arch said that the board also wanted the management to end its legal disputes with private operators. One such quarrel is with Huawei Technologies, the contractor for a nationwide CDMA mobile network covering 51 provinces and worth 7.2 billion baht.

CAT filed a 32 billion baht suit against Huawei over its delayed construction of the network.

The case is currently being heard by the Supreme Administrative Court.