The move follows a complaint submitted by a group of consumers that the shortage had caused inconvenience to users, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said early this week.
The involved parties are AIS, CP All – the operator of 7-Eleven – and True Corp.
CP All is part of the Charoen Pokphand group, which is the parent of True, while the latter is a major rival of AIS.
AIS chief executive officer Somchai Lertsutiwong said his company and CP All were still negotiating on the possible new revenue rate that AIS would pay to CP All for selling its refill cards at 7-Eleven convenience stores.
However, if in the end CP All still insisted that it wanted a higher rate than what AIS had in mind, the cellular operator might consider stopping the sale of its cards at 7-Elevens, he said.
True CEO Suphachai Chearavanont said True did not have a role to play as it was a matter for CP All to decide.
CP All stopped ordering the AIS prepaid cards early last month, pending the completion of renegotiations for a new revenue rate that AIS would pay the company for selling One-2-Call refill cards at 7-Eleven outlets.
CP All has reportedly asked AIS to pay 7 per cent of its card-sales revenue, which is the same rate as True pays to CP All for its refill-card sales.
AIS currently pays CP All 5 per cent of the revenue from its card sales at 7-Eleven stores.
Somchai said the sales of AIS refill cards at the 7-Eleven chain accounted for about 18 per cent of AIS’s total sales of such cards via all channels.
According to AIS, annual refill-card sales amount to around Bt100 billion.
The problem has, however, had little impact on AIS customers, Somchai said, adding, “We’ve kept expanding the card-sales channels to serve our users better.”
There are around 9,000 7-Eleven stores nationwide, but AIS customers can also pick up One-2-Call refill cards at outlets such as AIS customer-service shops, Telewiz outlets, Family Mart stores, post offices and B2S bookstores around the country.
These various sales channels add up to more 10,000 outlets, Somchai said.
Mobile phones can also be topped up at the 40,000 automated teller machines of 11 banks nationwide and via AIS’s mobile-banking service, mPay.