TOT senior executive vice president Morakot Thienmontree said TOT |told AIS to wrap up talks |on the matter within seven |days.

The rental fee relates to TOT’s telecom towers and network equipment from October until last month.

The state agency informed AWN on the backdated payment last week after they reached agreement that AWN will pay TOT a rental fee of Bt466.67 million (excluding VAT) per month for the towers and equipment, starting this month.

TOT requires AWN to pay the monthly fee in advance.

Last week AWN paid the July fee – Bt485.33 million (including VAT) – to TOT.

Big payments

This payment is part of the main contract that AWN will have to pay to TOT for renting space on the telecom towers and the network equipment – Bt3.6 billion and Bt2 billion per year respectively. However, both parties have yet to sign the main contract.

AWN needs TOT’s infrastructure to continue serving around six million users of its 2G service on its 3G/4G network.

AIS had utilised the assets |to provide a 2G service under |a TOT concession before handing them over to TOT after |its concession expired last September. The concession expiration prompted AWN |to rush to rent the infrastructure.