Advanced Info Service may end the mobile-phone concession of its subsidiary Digital Phone Co (DPC) with CAT Telecom once licensing of third-generation services becomes clearer. DPC holds a concession from the state telecom enterprise to provide service on the 1800 Megahertz spectrum. Currently it has 70,000 subscribers who produce an average of 360 million baht in revenue a month. It has to pay 25% of its revenue to CAT under the revenue- sharing concession that runs until 2013. Last year it paid a total of 1.3 billion baht in royalties to CAT.

AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said the country's largest mobile operator was awaiting a clear policy on 3G licensing from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which is currently holding public consultations on frequency allocation for 3G. The hearings are scheduled to end on Sept 26. The regulator expects to begin issuing licences for 3G in the second quarter of next year but operators have been pressing for faster action.

AIS received approval from the NTC to offer a limited 3G service on the 900 MHz spectrum in Chiang Mai. Mr Wichien said the company depended on DPC for network roaming to address limitations of the 900 MHz spectrum on expanding coverage areas. As a result, he said, AIS still needed DPC to help it provide 3G service. But once the licensing becomes clear for the 2.1 GHz spectrum, considered the universal standard for 3G, then DPC would not be necessary and AIS would consider negotiating an end to its concession, he said.

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