House to Debate Telecom Bill in Thailand.

Oct. 3--The telecommunications services bill is expected to be debated extensively in the House of Representatives today amid intense lobbying by private telecommunications operators.

The bill was earlier amended and passed by the Senate with several articles changed. If the House approves the Senate's version -- something an industry source said was very unlikely -- it will become law.

Instead, a joint scrutiny committee consisting of MPs and senators is expected to be set up to revise the bill again.

"Members of the House won't accept the revised version of the Senate and will seek to revert to the original version because of the intense lobbying from private operators," said Anuparb Thiralarp, head of the telecommunications management department at Mahidol University.

The most contentious part of the bill is Section 77 which relates to the issuing of telecom licences. Operators have complained that it was not clear if existing players would be granted licences or not.

The section was a matter of great interest and the lower House needed to pay more attention to it than other sections, Mr Anuparb said.

He also predicted that scrutiny by the joint committee would not take long because all sides wanted the bill passed into law prior to the end of parliamentary session in November.