COMMUNICATIONS / STATE ENTERPRISES

CAT to call B2.1bn bid in spite of criticism

KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA

CAT Telecom is preparing to open bids for a costly billing system, despite allegations that some conditions may favour large operators.

The board of the state telecom enterprise is expected to review the terms of the 2.1-billion-baht integrated billing and customer service system tomorrow.

An executive source in CAT Telecom questioned the transparency of the terms of reference, claiming they were fixed in favour of certain equipment vendors.

CAT Telecom first called bids to replace its 10-year-old system in April 2005. Five consortia entered but only three met the technical requirements. M-Link Asia Plc, a company associated with a sister of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was among the three that qualified to enter an electronic bid or e-auction.

However, the bid was later scrapped after complaints that specifications had been locked.

CAT Telecom invited vendors to attend a meeting on April 5 and more than 40 took part to hear the terms of reference. All of them had to sign an acknowledgement of their attendance and the bidding conditions.

But some vendors questioned the technical requirements, which would enable only a handful to enter the e-auction. Setting high technical specifications would eliminate small vendors from the bidding, the CAT source said.

He cited one requirement that bidders must demonstrate that they have more than five million phone numbers using their billing and CRM system and must be certified by three operators in two countries that are not software producers.

Such terms would qualify only three or four major software vendors such as Oracle, Intech and Convergys, he said.

Moreover, the terms did not set conditions for software system testing, he said, adding that CAT risked experiencing similar problems as its sister agency TOT Plc.

The TOT billing system installed by Telemetics, which included shareholders linked to former TOT executives, has been error-prone since the start and Telemetics lacks the money to fix it.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Tuesday April 10, 2007