In Brief: Thai wireless rate hikes on horizon

A Thai telecom expert says the days of rock-bottom wireless phone rates in his country are probably about over.

Anuparp Thiralarp, president of the Thailand Telecommunications Management Academy, told the Bangkok Post this week that the slew of low-rate promotions available to Thai consumers don't reflect operators' costs and will likely come to an end when new interconnection charges are introduced.

Pending interconnection charges will reflect the cost of handling calls across networks based on actual call traffic. The current lack of such charges has encouraged loquacious teenagers to make long calls, which results in congestion during peak hours, Anuparp said.

The changes will lead to higher phone bills but also better service, Anuparp predicted, as congestion eases and companies have more capital to invest in their infrastructure.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International