Thailand 3G Auction Approved

[webfact]

3G auction takes big step forward with NTC OK

By USANEE MONGKOLPORN

THE NATION ON SUNDAY

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) yesterday approved the final draft plan to auction the licences for the long-awaited 3G wireless broadband service.

The move sets in motion its plan to grant the operating licences in September.

The draft - endorsed by the NTC board - was proposed for approval by the commission's 3G committee, which had amended the original draft plan after the NTC public hearing on June 25.

The NTC will publish the final draft plan on its website homepage tomorrow and is expected to publish it in the Royal Gazette later this month.

Once the draft is published in the Royal Gazette, it will accept licence applications for 30 days. The pre-qualification process round will begin after that.

The process will take 15 days and the auction for the licences to use the 2.1GHz spectrum will be held in September.

The highlights of the final draft plan include:

- Changing the starting bid price for the licence. The starting bid price for the 3G-2.1GHz spectrum licences has been raised to Bt12.8 billion each, up from Bt10 billion in the original draft.

- New auction details are added. If all three licences are not clinched in the auction, the remaining ones would be auctioned within the next 90 days. The starting bid for the remaining licences will be equal to the second-highest bid in the first auction, and the N-1 auction method will not be used for the remaining licences.

- Added incentives in the network roll-out condition. If the licence holders' network roll-out can cover 80 per cent of the population within three years, they will be allowed to pay the final instalment of the licence price at the end of the fourth year of the licence term. If their network roll-out can cover 80 per cent of the population within two years, they will be allowed to pay the second instalment of the licence price in the third year of the licence term and the final instalment in the fifth year of the licence term.

- The period when the licence winners are required to start listing their shares in the stock market once they obtain the licence is being extended to five years from three years in the original draft.

- If the licence winners are incumbent telecom operators, they are required to submit to the NTC their plan to return their existing spectrums and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan within 45 days of winning the licences.

The NTC will use the N-1 method only in the first licence auction. Under this, all three licences will be auctioned off if there are at least four pre-qualified bidders; two licences if there are three pre-qualified bidders and one licence if there are only two pre-qualified bidders. The auction will not be held if there is only one pre-qualified bidder.

The licence winners will pay half of the winning bid after the auction, another 25 per cent at the end of the second year of the licence term and the rest at the end of the following year.

They would be required to launch the service within a year after obtaining the licence, and their network roll-out must cover half of the population within two years, rising to 80 per cent within four years.

Besides the licence price and the annual licence fee, the licence-holders will also be subject to the annual spectrum fee of between Bt400,000 to Bt500,000, and the annual fee of Bt2 per number.

-- The Nation 2010-07-04

[Changian]

Good news. But also worth noting Malaysia is already well on the way to having 4G & Wimax networks covering the country. ( See: Another step towards 4G network rollout in Malaysia

[gotlost]

It just takes the thief's, I mean politicians along time to divide up the booty.

[Pib]

3G? Oh, I remember now, that's what 4G replaced.

[givenall]

Good news. But also worth noting Malaysia is already well on the way to having 4G & Wimax networks covering the country. ( See: Another step towards 4G network rollout in Malaysia

Ummm I guess it would be nice if Thailand was like US, but cheap like Thailand

[Chang_paarp]

As others have observed, just in time for the neighbours to go to 4G. Maybe they will have a sale of redundant or less than optimum equipment the winner can pick up at a discount..

[apetley]

Was it not so long ago that it was proposed to drop 3G and go straight to 4G?

And I hope that there are strict penalties for not meeting the coverage targets as rarely have rollouts gone to plan here.

[skippybangkok]

It just takes the thief's, I mean politicians along time to divide up the booty.

Yeh, guess who pays........ it goes into the customers bill. Was at that meeting a week back, made that comment. Reply was operators are too rich, and its the role of the government to charge more for internet ( i mean...why do rural folk need affordable access to internet anyway.... ludicrous! ) , and put it towards more important things ( maybe like i.e. another 140 billion baht airport north of bangkok).

Never miss an opportunity for a money grab !

Edited July 4, 2010 by skippybangkok

[chainarong]

Mobile phone set up in HK is like Australia's, total bl!!!dy rip off, , International calls on hatari card Thailand , are well in front of the two countries mentioned.

[Thailand]

Who are the main contenders for the licences?

[MJo]

Who are the main contenders for the licences?

I guess AIS, DTAC and TRUE.

Doubt TOT will bid as they have already launched their service at 2100MHz without this license that seems to be mandatory purchase for others. Then again with present MVNO set up they wont last long once the others get their networks up. It's mainly a question of upgrading their existing cell sites with new equipment so two to three years is doable to get 80% of population covered.

Good if they finally get it done but i wouldn't be surprised if there is still delays. They been setting this auction "soon" since 2003...

And i hope the operators have got their backhaul sorted as otherwise they run out of bandwidth pretty soon when the masses of sheep turn on their iSomething data with unlimited plans.

[MZurf]

Was it not so long ago that it was proposed to drop 3G and go straight to 4G?

And I hope that there are strict penalties for not meeting the coverage targets as rarely have rollouts gone to plan here.

Problem is by the time they are finally ready to start the bidding process for the 4G network 5G would be the world standard!

[MJo]

To be precise even 4G is not a standard yet. Just a draft but not finalized yet. So technically there is no "4G" yet. Some countries have already seen some complains and lawsuits between the operators when they advertise wimax etc as 4G...

[sirchai]

3G? Oh, I remember now, that's what 4G replaced.

3 G. Oh my god.

[JohnnyFeelIt]

To be precise even 4G is not a standard yet. Just a draft but not finalized yet. So technically there is no "4G" yet. Some countries have already seen some complains and lawsuits between the operators when they advertise wimax etc as 4G...

4G will have been rolled out elsewhere long before 3G ever becomes mainstream in Thailand...

[warni]

To be precise even 4G is not a standard yet. Just a draft but not finalized yet. So technically there is no "4G" yet. Some countries have already seen some complains and lawsuits between the operators when they advertise wimax etc as 4G...

4G will have been rolled out elsewhere long before 3G ever becomes mainstream in Thailand...

Things are changing very fast, maybe you are an oracle.

4 G also known as LTE is still on an experience level in some cities in Europe . Ericsson is still testing speed ups to 42 Mbits/s in downloads with unsatisfied results.

Also check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

[warni]

To be precise even 4G is not a standard yet. Just a draft but not finalized yet. So technically there is no "4G" yet. Some countries have already seen some complains and lawsuits between the operators when they advertise wimax etc as 4G...

4G will have been rolled out elsewhere long before 3G ever becomes mainstream in Thailand...

Things are changing very fast, maybe you are an oracle.

4 G also known as LTE is still on an experience level in some cities in Europe . Ericsson is still testing speed ups to 42 Mbits/s in downloads with unsatisfied results.

Also check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

[anotheruser]

Good news. But also worth noting Malaysia is already well on the way to having 4G & Wimax networks covering the country. ( See: Another step towards 4G network rollout in Malaysia

That could be true but 3G roll out in Thailand benefits those of us that don't reside in Malaysia.

[anotheruser]

3G is sufficient for most net requirements. I would rather see full 3G penetration than small clusters of 4G. 3G is enough to browse websites and stream video.