Wireless Broadband Licences In 11 Months

[george]

Wireless broadband licences in 11 months

BANGKOK: -- The National Telecommunications Commission plans to grant licences to provide wireless broadband access services, including WiMax technology, next February.

NTC member Natee Sukonrat said the commission's board had appointed a committee with him as chairman, to study ways of granting the licences.

The committee's study will run in parallel with the NTC's review of existing plans to grant licences to develop 3G wireless broadband services using the 2.1GHz spectrum.

While Natee declined to elaborate, another NTC source said that according to the commission's time frame, the whole process - from the planned studies to the awarding of licences - would take 11 months, starting this month.

This month and next, the NTC will begin to examine the need to grant the licences and possible impacts from doing so. It will also work out a process by which it will take a frequency spectrum back from state agencies that are currently using it.

The two issues, including talks with the state agencies who will be asked to hand back their frequencies, will take 11 months, during which the NTC will also draw up a plan for the granting of commercial licences and licences to provide services for the public.

Meanwhile, it will write terms of reference for the hiring of a consultant to assess the value of the spectrum, and the consultant's report will be submitted for consideration by the NTC board in November.

The NTC will begin accepting licence applications in late November and will officially award the licences in February next year, the source said.

Last year, the NTC hired a World Bank expert to study what it called the regulations and the licensing of new technology services and possible impacts from its spectrum licensing. The outcome of the study was submitted to the commission last November.

Since late last year, the NTC has been discussing whether it should grant licences for WiMax service development only in the 2.3GHz spectrum, given that the other choice - the 2.5GHz spectrum - has been in use by broadcasters.

If it decides to use the 2.3GHz spectrum, the NTC will have to take it back from the state agencies currently using it. Of the spectrum's 100-megahertz bandwidth, TOT owns a bandwidth of 64MHz, military agencies use a combined bandwidth of 30MHz and CAT owns a 4MHz bandwidth.

-- The Nation 2010-04-19

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[gotlost]

Still fighting over who gets the bigger cut. Unbelievable as Thailand slips further back in the world.

[khunjake]

In 11 months time?

To "study ways of granting licenses"

[CHdiver]

Nice, other Nations are working to get the Generation after 3G going Thailand is still deciding....... thanks God for Hutch & Cat at the moment

[Crushdepth]

*Another* 11 months and still studying ways to do it :-)

I love the bit about 'assessing the value of the spectrum', because that's been the holdup on the whole process IMHO - trying to figure out how much can be gouged or skimmed. They're still having visions of fat 2G auctions but that's not going to happen again.

By the time anyone gets around to building a 3G network in Thailand its going to be old hat.