NTC Admits It Has No Idea When It Can Auction 3g Licences

[webfact]

NTC admits it has no idea when it can auction 3G licences

By TELECOM REPORTERS

THE NATION

Published on November 12, 2009

Though it is holding a second public hearing on the auction rules for 3G-2.1GHz spectrum licences today, the National Telecommunications Commission does not know when it will be able to grant the licences.

"I don't know when we can auction the licences," NTC chairman Choochart Phromprasid said yesterday, adding that it might be good for the watchdog if it did not grant them, as that would eliminate the the risk of legal action in connection with the licensing.

However, in today's hearing the private mobile-phone operators will urge the NTC to grant the licences quickly, and they will also raise the issue of spectrum-licence prices.

A True Move source said the company would raise the latter issue, as the licence prices are relatively high when compared to those of neighbouring countries.

Wichien Mektrakarn, chief executive officer of Advanced Info Service, said AIS would tell the NTC to grant the licences quickly, as it wants to see an early introduction of 3G service.

The NTC has proposed the price of Bt5.2 billion for a licence with 15MHz bandwidth, and Bt4.6 billion for each of the three licences with 10MHz bandwidth.

The NTC will consult with the Council of State on whether it has full authority to grant the 3G spectrum licences during the formation of the new, single watchdog - the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

The consultation move follows the recommendation of economic ministers last week that the watchdog should clear all legal doubts over its licensing authority before moving ahead with the auction plan.

Many parties have opposed 3G spectrum licensing, arguing that it would pave the way for licence winners to migrate customers from state concessions to the licences in order to save regulatory costs, at the expense of the state concession owners - TOT and CAT Telecom.

According to estimates by the State Enterprise Policy Office, the two state agencies will earn more than Bt235 billion combined in concession revenue from their four private mobile-phone concessions throughout the remainder of the contract periods.

TOT and CAT paid combined corporate income tax and remittances of more than Bt18 billion per year to the state in 2007 and 2008.

-- The Nation 2009/11/12

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[gotlost]

They have no idea what they are doing.

[Crushdepth]

I've given up any hope of seeing 3G in Thailand. Could be that 4G will arrive before Thailand ever gets its act together, maybe we'll be seeing that first!