TT&T Plc, the provincial fixed-line telephone provider, has denied any knowledge of a takeover proposal for its broadband internet arm Triple T Broadband Co by True Corporation.

Korawut Chiwaprecha, vice-president for the finance and budget department at TT&T, said the rumour was more like a very "strong unconfirmed report".

"We will absolutely not sell our flagship revenue stream as our broadband business is expected to generate up to 40% of total earnings this year," he said.

"Given that TT&T keeps moving away from fixed lines to broadband business to offset a sharp decline in revenue, why would we sell our most profitable and high growth potential business to competitors?"

He even quipped: "TT&T would definitely consider buying True [broadband operations] if it was up for sale."

Triple T Broadband operates high-speed internet services under the Maxnet brand. It expects to generate 3.4 billion baht in revenue with total broadband subscribers of 300,000 this year.

"The revenue proportion (of TT&T's total) is expected to exceed 50% in 2009 with total broadband subscribers of 550,000 next year," Mr Korawut said.

TT&T expects to earn 8.6 billion baht in revenue this year. It is likely to face losses for another year due to the continuing decline in average revenue per fixed-line user and high concession costs, he added.

TT&T pays 43% of its fixed-line revenue to TOT Plc and 18% for leased-line and non-voice services - by far the highest rates in the industry.

Mr Korawut said that Triple T Broadband was moving ahead with the second phase of its broadband network expansion in order to increase network capacity for an additional 600,000 numbers.

The broadband network infrastructure is designed to accommodate new internet protocol television (IPTV), Voice-over-IP and international direct dialling (IDD) services.

The company completed construction of its first-phase broadband network last year for 300,000 numbers.

Asked about rumours that ended up being strongly denied as not true, Mr Korawut said: "If anything was happening there would be a confidentiality agreement that really precludes me from knowing anything."