CAT chief executive Jirayuth Rungsrithong said the move was in line with the policy of Information and Communications Technology Minister Chuti Krairiksh to lower the price.
In April the Cabinet approved CAT's plan to spend Bt7.5 billion on the deal, of which Bt7.2 billion is for the purchase of Hutchison Telecom business and the CDMA network, while the rest is for costs related to the purchase process. Neither party has yet to sign the deal.
Jirayuth said the deal was agreed in dollar terms at not over US$220 million, about Bt6.9 billion in baht terms at today's exchange rate.
He added that there were many ways to bargain for a lower price.
Jirayuth said that CAT would also ask Hutchison Telecom to upgrade the CDMA network in 25 provinces to the so-called Rev B standard, to provide a higher data transmission speed of 9.2 megabits per second.
CAT wants to quickly merge its own CDMA network in 51 provinces with the separate CDMA network in 25 provinces belonging to Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia, its joint venture with Hutchison Telecom, so it can provide a nationwide service more efficiently.
Hutchison-CAT markets the cellular service in 25 provinces under the Hutch brand, using a CDMA network leased from BFKT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hutchison Telecom.
Jirayuth said he hoped CAT could sign the takeover deal with Hutchison Telecom at the end of this year and the network merger could begin early next year.
In a separate matter, CAT's board last week approved the plan to spend Bt2 billion on installing submarine fibre optic cables in the Gulf of Thailand to provide communications services to a Chevron rig and that of PTT Exploration and Production.
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