NBTC wants DTAC to explain failed mobile phone network

BANGKOK, December 22 (TNA) - Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) called representatives of Total Access Communication Public Company Limited (DTAC) to explain Thursday afternoon the company's recent cell phone network failure; while the operator announced to have given free services to clients for 48 hours to compensate for their disappointment. NBTC Secretary-General elect Thakorn Tanthasit said the DTAC network failure affected the services of over 20 million phone numbers Wednesday (Dec 21); so his commission called an urgent meeting with DTAC executives at 1.30pm Thursday to inquire about the incident, which was considered a serious problem and should not recur. Meanwhile, the DTAC management clarified that the service collapse resulted from a transfer from old to new equipment which disrupted the communications of some clients, and that the problem was compounded when customers repeated their call attempts which reduced the rate of successful calls to 50 per cent from its normal level of 99 per cent. The problem happened in two periods: at about 11am and from 5pm to 6pm Wednesday, both were peak hours of phone uses. In compensation, the management said, DTAC gave free services to all its subscribers for 48 hours, from midnight of December 20 to noon Thursday. (TNA)