NBTC Panel To Finalise Reserve Price

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NBTC

NBTC panel to finalise reserve price

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's telecom panel will finalise the reserve price for 2.1-gigahertz spectrum slots next Tuesday, a week later than it had planned.

Committee chairman Settapong Malisuwan said yesterday that his panel had decided to give more time to the price working group, which has to provide further details to enable it to finalise the reserve price for a 5MHz-bandwidth slot.

The committee expects to be able to present for NBTC board consideration on June 27 the Information Memorandum, which contains all auction details, including the reserve price and bidders' qualifications, he said.

The draft regulations on infrastructure-sharing and network-roaming are also expected to be submitted to the board the same day.

On Monday, the NBTC's 2.1GHz management subcommittee selected three prices out of a total of seven possibilities from the initial valuation of the 2.1GHz spectrum proposed by the price working group. The three shortlisted prices are Bt6.23 billion, Bt6.44 billion and Bt12.67 billion per 5MHz slot.

The telecom committee will select one of these prices, and discount its value. The result will become the reserve price for each slot available at the spectrum licence auction.

The working group has proposed that the committee work out a reserve price by basing its calculation on 67 per cent of the initial valuation. If the panel uses this formula, the reserve price will end up at about Bt4.174 billion if it selects the first valuation, Bt4.314 billion if it opts for the second, and Bt8.488 billion if it goes for the third.

The price working group comprises lecturers from Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Economics hired to work out both the 2.1GHz spectrum price and the reserve price.

A telecom analyst yesterday said that if the reserve price were to be finalised near to Bt4 billion, it would be in line with market expectations. He said the market maintained the view that there would only be three potential bidders: Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Corp. They are each expected to target at least two or three of the spectrum slots to enable them to efficiently offer 3G service.

Meanwhile, the NBTC will hold a public hearing today on the new draft of rules aimed at preventing foreign dominance of telecom operators.

The regulator will also demonstrate a mock-up of the 2.1GHz spectrum auction to the press next Monday.

-- The Nation 2012-06-21