The company made the move after the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission told it yesterday that it had to shut down the 2G service at midnight tonight, when the remedy period it had granted AIS will end.

AIS executives then decided to seek the injunction to protect its subscribers and to ask for an extension of the remedy period, which the NBTC had granted after AIS’s concession expired last year.

AIS informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday of its application for an injunction. The company said it was attempting to mitigate the effects of service disruption in accordance with the NBTC’s aim for the best interest of the public and ensuring service continuity.

The SET filing was signed by AIS chief executive officer Somchai Lertsutiwong.

The court yesterday asked the NBTC to explain its position today.

Last Friday, AIS submitted its last request to the NBTC for an extension of the remedy period for its customers 2G on to 900-megahertz spectrum.

It also asked permission to use only the idle 5MHz of the 900MHz band in Lot 1 to ensure continuity of service. Lot 1 was assigned to Jas Mobile Broadband, one of the two companies that won licences last year to use the 900MHz spectrum.

However, the NBTC has insisted all along that it cannot extend the remedy period, citing its telecom committee’s decision requiring AIS to shut down its 2G service when the NBTC grants one of the 900MHz licences to either winner of last year’s auction.

The telecom committee awarded the 15-year 900MHz licence to True Move H Universal Communication (TUC) yesterday, for effect tomorrow.

Suphachai Chearavanont, chief executive officer of True Corp, said after receiving the licence that True would launch the 900MHz service full-scale nationwide at the end of May on 16,000 sites.

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC, said the other 900MHz licence winner, Jas, had reportedly clinched a loan from foreign banks so it could afford to pay the fees required to secure the licence.

Jas has yet to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee. The deadline is Monday.

AIS has about 8 million 2G customers, of whom 7.6 million are with the network of its subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) and the rest, about 400,000, are on its own network. AIS will roam AWN’s 2G customers on the 1,800MHz band of Total Access Communication (DTAC).

Takorn believes that AIS’s service shutdown would likely affect only a few of the 400,000 AIS customers because the NBTC last Thursday ordered AIS to hurry to transfer all of its 400,000 2G customers to AWN. The phone-number portability centre can serve 60,000 switches per day.

He also believes that not all of these 400,000 customers are active.

Takorn urged AIS’s 2G-900MHz subscribers to hurry and transfer their mobile-phone numbers yesterday and today before their service is turned off. If they can do so on time, they can continue using their old numbers.

While AIS wants to transfer all 400,000 2G customers to AWN via the over-the-air method on their mobile phones, Takorn said this request could not be granted.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, chief executive officer of AIS, insisted that the NBTC had the authority to consider allowing AIS to use Jas’s band, since Jas had yet to pick its licence up.

AIS has been prepared since the end of the auction of 900MHz licences late last year to ensure all customers can continue calling, he said.

The existing measures to protect consumers began with the launch of the campaign to migrate 2G customers to AWN, followed by roaming them with DTAC and expanding AWN’s network to cover blind spots in coverage.

He said the roaming deal with DTAC had no term. Neither side specified when the agreement would end.

Last week True offered its 900MHz band to AIS to use free of charge for three months to serve its 2G customers.

Somchai said AIS had never been approached directly by True on this matter.

He doubts that the proposal is practical, as it might not comply with NBTC rules and regulations.

The average monthly revenue per user of these 400,000 2G customers is about Bt100.

Somchai said the service cut-off would not affect AIS’s image but that of the whole industry, as the disconnected customers would rush to complain on social media about who is to blame. He does not want to see that happen.