The board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) recently rejected a draft concerning a new tariff structure to govern all types of mobile services, charging customers based on real usage or a per-second basis, saying its management has not completed a comprehensive study on the issue.
The board said it wants to see clear conditions to ensure the new tariff regulations would not add a burden to consumers, leading to higher promotional tariffs once the regulations come into effect.
The board provided an additional 30 days for management to conduct more studies and finalise the draft.
A source on the NBTC board who requested anonymity said the rejection of the draft means the current mobile tariff structure would continue to promote two main types of packages.
The first kind of package refers to unlimited or buffet campaigns with flat-rate tariffs, while the second refers to per-second billing packages based on actual usage.
Each of these account for roughly 50% of all promotional packages in the market.
The source said the NBTC's plan to promote the per-second billing format for all mobile phone calls aligns with the conditions set in the 4G licence auction on the 1800- and 900-megahertz spectra in December 2015.
This licensing condition obliges bid winners to provide all tariffs based on real usage or a per-second basis.
True Move H Universal Communication (TUC) and Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) were granted licences from the 4G auction on the 1800MHz and 900MHz bands.
This tariff condition is expected to automatically cover services on all frequency bands and technologies, including 5G, said the source.
However, the now-defunct NBTC telecom committee resolved in 2017 to relax the auction conditions by allowing both TUC and AWN to offer a number of per-second billing tariffs, accounting for 50% of their total packages, up from just 5% previously.
This resolution followed heavy criticism of the condition by operators, arguing it is impractical and limited consumer choice.
TUC and AWN said in 2017 the pay-per-second tariff would affect 80% of their existing customers because they signed up for unlimited voice and data usage based on their high volume of usage.
LEGAL DRAMA
The committee's resolution was not unanimous, with three of four committee members agreeing to relax the per-second billing rule, while Dr Prawit Leesathapronwongsa supported the implementation of all 4G calls on a per-second basis.
Dr Prawit told the Bangkok Post he joined the Foundation for Consumers to jointly file a complaint to the Central Administrative Court in 2017 against the committee's resolution, claiming it was unlawful and violated the auction's condition that public benefits not be damaged.
The lawsuit asked the court to scrap the resolution.
One mobile user filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) the same year against the NBTC, charging it neglected to supervise mobile phone tariffs in compliance with the auction's rules, causing damage to the public interest.
The NACC has yet to issue a response to the petition.
In 2022, the court ordered the NBTC to strictly supervise the mobile tariffs of TUC and AWN in compliance with the 4G licence auction's conditions regarding charging on a per-second basis.
The court also ordered the NBTC to consider ways to supervise mobile service tariffs operated by other operators within 60 days from the date of final judgement.
The current NBTC board filed an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court in 2022, and that court has yet to deliver a response.
Dr Prawit said all the telecom operators lack sincerity regarding providing real per-second tariffs, which would benefit consumers.
He said mobile operators refuse to change because flat-rate packages can guarantee an exact amount of revenue per month, unlike packages charged on a per-second basis.
Dr Prawit said mobile operators should not set a higher rate for per-second tariffs than flat-rate packages in an effort to nudge consumers towards a flat-rate subscription.
He said the Central Administrative Court's order in 2022 does not focus solely on mobile calls, but also covers internet usage, which means mobile broadband tariffs have to be calculated on a per-kilobyte basis rather than a per-megabyte basis, as is the norm for existing packages in the market.