CAT Telecom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CAT Telecom Public Company Limited, under the corporate brand "CAT", is the Thai state-owned telecommunications company that owns Thailand’s international telecommunications infrastructure including its international gateways, satellite and submarine cable networks connections. Until recently, CAT had a monopoly on international telephony and CDMA mobile telephony. CAT partners with sister state-enterprise TOT to provide a GSM mobile service namely ThaiMobile (sold back to TOT in 2008)and with Hutchison namely Hutch to provide a CDMA CDMA2000 1X mobile service in 25 central provinces, while operates its own CDMA2000 1xEV-DO in 51 other regional provinces.[1] CAT also provides data communications and applications services, e.g., Leased Line, Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTx), Gigabit Ethernet, xDSL, Live TV Broadcast, e-Commerce, e-Auction, e-Security, etc. Over half of its revenue is from revenue sharing of its mobile concessionaires namely Total Access Communication (TAC, dtac Brand), True Move (TM), and Digital Phone Company (DPC, GSM1800 Brand) over the lives of their respective concession contracts, i.e., until 2018, 2013, and 2013, respectively. Corporatized on July 2003 August 14, 2003, CAT Telecom used to be known as the Communications Authority of Thailand. Its current Chairman of the Board of Directors is General Saprang Kalayanamitr, Assistant Secretary General of the Council for National Security Dr. Sathit Limpongpan, Deputy Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance. As of 31 October 2005 February 2008, it had 5,752 5,562 employees.[2] [3]
[edit] Corporatization and the aftermath of the 2006 coup
Under the deposed government of Thaksin Shinawatra (2001-2006), CAT Telecom was corporatized and plans were under way to privatize a portion of the state enterprise through an IPO in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. These plans were cancelled after the Thaksin-government was overthrown by a coup in 19 September 2006. Soon after the coup, the junta of General Surayud Chulanont announced plans to merge CAT Telecom with rival state telecom enterprise TOT (formerly the Telephone Organization of Thailand).[4]
The junta also appointed junta Assistant Secretary-General General Saprang Kalayanamitr to become the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of CAT Telecom and TOT. Saprang was accused by the founders of People's Television (PTV), a new satellite television station, of being behind CAT Telecom's refusal to grant an internet link from Bangkok to a satellite up-link station in Hong Kong. PTV was established by several ex-executives of the Thai Rak Thai party. CAT Telecom claimed that it never received PTV's application for internet access.[5]
The junta also cancelled the Thaksin government's telecom excise tax policy. The Thaksin government imposed an excise tax on privately offered fixed and cellular services, and then allowed telecom companies to deduct the amount they paid in excise tax from concession fees they had to pay to state concession owners TOT and CAT Telecom. The total amount paid by the private telecom firms did not change. The Surayud government's excise tax cancellation meant that TOT and CAT Telecom would receive their full concession payments. However, TOT and CAT were then forced to increase their dividends to the Ministry of Finance to account for their increased income.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Budde.com, CAT Telecom Web Report
- ^ CAT Telecom Website, History CAT
- ^ CAT Telecom Website, [1]
- ^ The Nation, Call for end to policy corruption, 16 October 2006
- ^ The Nation, PTV says 'CAT attack' ruined debut, 2 March 2007
- ^ The Nation, Telecom excise tax revoked, 24 January 2007
[edit] External links
 |
This government-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
