Thai Finance Ministry Calls For Further Talks On Impact Of 3G Licences

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Finance Ministry calls for further talks on impact of 3G licences

By Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

The Finance Ministry has recommended that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) consult with "all related state agencies" on its plan to auction the 3G2.1GHz spectrum licences.

According to a ministry letter signed by permanent secretary Sathit Limpongpan and sent to the NTC on Tuesday, the ministry says that the NTC licensing plan involves many state agencies, and the watchdog should consult with them on the move to grant the 3G licences. Otherwise, its licence granting could have unexpected impacts on their operations.

The NTC will auction three 3G licences in September.

DBS Vickers said in a research note that the Finance Ministry wants the NTC to amend 3G regulations to facilitate the ministry's plan to convert 2G concessions into licences. As the NTC is likely to take the ministry's proposal into consideration, this might further delay the award of 3G licenses.

The Finance Ministry owns 100 per cent of TOT and CAT Telecom. It is working out the details of the concession conversion plan. One option is to covert the existing private telecom concessions under TOT and CAT into NTC licences with 15 year terms, the same term as for the 3G licence. It wants to see the conversion completed before the NTC grants the 3G licences.

Many parties have said that the 3G licences will financially affect TOT and CAT by paving the way for private concession holders that obtain 3G licences to migrate customers from the high regulatory cost concessions to the lower regulatory cost licences.

The overall licence cost will account for 6 per cent of the licence holders' annual revenue, while the concession fee costs private concession holders around 25 per cent of their annual revenue.

-- The Nation 2010-07-16

[BigFun]

oho, so the cash cow is gonna be chopped up...or maybe not 55

[Losangels]

By the time this country gets 3G the rest of the world will already be

on 10G

[TheBarbarian]

Incompetency is the name of the game in Thailand. Cambodia has 3G for the last 6 years or so, they are far ahead of Thailand. Why not meeting a few months more? It makes the politicians and the elite more visible and gives them an aura of well stupdiity. Actually in the Nordic 4G is a fact of life. so gentlemen take your time. Talk a bit more. Who cares?<div>It is the strategy that worked two centuries ago but makes Thailand top the failed state rankings soon.</div>

[Doudou]

This is unbelievable! How many years are these clowns going to talk about the same thing. Don't they ever learn?

3G has a different business model: you charge by MB not by time used. Why is it so hard for Thai politicians to understand? Just change the way agencies charge between each other.

Clearly banana republic sees the internet as a cash cow not as a business enabler.

Why is it so hard to have dept heads actually know something about the dept they are in charge off?

[jayjay0]

3G 4G it is all over my head.

But installing 3G when a better G is available makes no sense to me. I may be tech. challenged but these yo yo's are retarded.

[phil2]

By the time this country gets 3G the rest of the world will already be

on 10G

I agree with you.

[animatic]

Upward failure.

It is sadly ingrained in the Thai culture to pass the buck and not get pinned down to anything

that might possibly, in a blue moon come back to slap them. And of course Thai BUREAUCRATS

have this cultural affliction 10 times worse... being bureaucrats.

The 17 year locusts will have grand kids before these guys can actually 'make a decision'.

[Jimi007]

Why bother with 3G at this point? It is old technology! Just skip it and move on to 4G... They have been talking about this auction for years and it still hasn't happened... I really don't care anymore anyway. I have internet and a mobile phone. If 3G ever does become a reality, I'm not sure I'm going to rush out and buy a new phone to surf the internet on a phone anyway. But it is interesting that the Finance Ministry owns 100% of TOT and CAT, isn't it?