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Operators may help govt resolve deadlock

By Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

The task of ushering Thailand into the 3G era is now a job for the government instead of the national telecom regulator, but it remains to be seen if it can achieve the goal.

The government is urging private telecom operators to provide the 3G wireless broadband service on their existing spectrums, following a court ruling that suspended the 3G licence auction that the National Telecom-munications Commission (NTC) hoped to stage last week.

The Cabinet is also expected to consider a plan by the TOT this week to roll out a new, nationwide 3G network.

All three private cellular operators, which have already launched the 3G service on existing spectrums, said it was not financially wise to put more investment into 3G, as their concession terms are due to end in coming years.

But Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij has said the solution is to convert their concessions to NTC licences with common conditions and terms. This would enable them to continue their cellular business and the 3G service on existing spectra on the same footing.

But a telecom industrialist doubted the NTC would grant the telecoms their existing spectra after concessions were converted, because the watchdog is uncertain about its licensing authority.

The NTC is waiting for the Central Administrative Court to rule if it has licensing authority, after CAT Telecom opted to take the matter to court. The case could take time before a decision is reached.

While the Telecom Business Act allows the conversion of concessions into licences, the terms of licences must be equal to the remaining concession terms, instead of the equally long period wanted by the Finance Ministry.

The government said another option to make 3G -2.1GHz licences available soon was to quickly set up the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC), but telecom industrialists doubt the establishment process can be done quickly or smoothly.

Telecom operators have realised they might have to solve the 3G deadlock by approaching the authorities and proposing solutions, to help push proposals into reality.

A source at one telecom operator said there were ways out of the 3G deadlock. "Nothing is impossible," he said. There might be an attempt to ask the government to seek ways to extend the concession terms to enable the telcos to continue doing businesses and make it more viable to further invest on the 3G service on existing spectrums."

He referred to the extension of a concession term for private telecom operators by TOT and CAT many years ago. But in 2007 the government's legal arm, the Council of State, ruled that the practice and other related telecom concession amendments did not follow rules in the 1992 Public-Private Joint Venture Act and were not approved by the Cabinet.

As the current regulatory set-up did not support telcos rushing full steam into 3G service, he said there might be an amendment in the provisional clause of the frequency allocation bill formulating the NBTC in order to solve the 3G deadlock."

Adding a clause on the provisional clause may be the way out."

-- The Nation 2010-09-27

[gotlost]

Still arguing over the biggest piece of the pie. Not this year.

[bkk75]

This is just way too confusing for anyone to understand. It's so typical of govt bureaucracy to create so many laws that even attempting to breath becomes complicated.

[bkk75]

On the other hand - this is not a problem of Thailand only. State telecoms or former state telecoms are used to having a monopoly, charge more for providing less, and stifle competition regularly.

It takes a determined and strong regulator and government to bring monopolists under control.

Well put...as my econ prof once said..Govts should stay out of economics altogether and let supply/demand dictate.