Academic seeks Administrative Court injunction to suspend 3G bids

BANGKOK, Oct 10 – A telecoms academic petitioned the Administrative Court today, seeking an injunction to suspend Tuesday’s auction of third-generation (3G) wireless licenses by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).

Anuparb Tiralarb, former president of the Thailand Telecommunication Management Academy, said the auction should be suspended until NBTC amends some regulations and pre-auction conditions for the people’s maximum benefit.

He said the NBTC has set a timeframe for 3G mobile service operators to expand nationwide coverage in half of the country within two years and 80 per cent in four years but the remaining 20 per cent which includes rural and remote zones will be overlooked.

The NBTC should impose a maximum technical requirement for mobile phone signal stability, he said, but it has instead set the requirement at a minimum level.

The 3G service should cover underprivileged people in remote areas which represent the majority of Thai population without a condition for service fee, he said. NBTC should also set a service fee ceiling and compensation from operators in case of system failure.

Mr Anuparb said he did not intend to obstruct the auction but he merely wanted the NBTC to act for consumers’ ultimate benefit before starting the auction.

Three major mobile operators were declared qualified for next Tuesday’s auction of 3G wireless licenses. They included Advanced Info Service (AIS), DTAC and True Move.

The minimum auction price is set at Bt4.5 billion for the 2100 megahertz bandwidth to use with 3G technology. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-10-10

There used to be a guy in English theatre who put on farces that would run and run.

But even he couldn't match the Thai 3G show.

Administrative Court deciding Thursday afternoon whether to consider petition for injunction suspending Tuesday's 3G wireless licenses auction /MCOT

By the time Thailand sorts this out the rest of the world including Afghanistan will have 6G

Well said, far too many with vested interests to keep Thailand in the dark ages!! They want to keep the people uninformed!

It's time to stock up 3G phones.

By the time Thailand get's the official 3G network, there might not be 3G phones available anymore.

By the time Thailand gets standardized 3G they can truly say they are The Hub of 3G, because they may be the only ones running it since most everybody else moved on to 4G and beyond.

More bureaucracy that needs to be sorted. Typical NBTC - working to the minimum standards and charging the national debt for outdated technology.

Dtac already upgraded the tower near my house (200m) and is just waiting to turn it on, also another tower was installed near (1km) clear shot for true and AIS can do something on their tower next door (75m) anytime-yet for 15 years ToT could never bring us a phone line and still has not done so, so we have no adsl which is better and preferred to 3G anyway.

At any rate we will not only have 3G soon but also have choice OMG how did they ever let something like that happen. Stop worrying about the coverage - the only thing stopping that has been Academic, ToT and CAT for the past 50 years already.

Just shut-up and do it.

Will this rule out Thailand becoming a 3G internet hub for AEC ?

Another embarrassing development in the fiasco that is Thailand's attempts to greenlight 3G. If these things continue indefinitely, it'll only be a decade or two before Thailand can no longer go about touting it's infrastructure in spite of the obviously dysfunctional political situation in the Kingdom.

One way or the other some one will find a way to block progress. Here the world is changing to 4G and we can't even get 3G. But we have a Government inviting the world to come and invest in us. The Government is staring to fall so far behind they think they are in first place. Won't be long and we will be watching the back side of Cambodia and Burma.

Won't be long if some of these academics get there way and we will be using a piece of string with a tin can on each end and long distance will be a system of smoke signals.

Everything here seems to be set at minimum requirement so the failure rate is near non existent. Also, how many underpriveleged rural Thais would have access to 3G? Ooops forgot about the red villages and free tablets(are they 3G compatable??)

TOT have already claimed thousands of lives saved of those mobile internet 3G users not watching while crossing the road.

Just build another shopping mall and hope no-one notices the crumbling infrastructure and lack of a proper mobile internet network.

Face saved.

There used to be a guy in English theatre who put on farces that would run and run.

But even he couldn't match the Thai 3G show.

Brian Rix!

Court decision awaited on 3G telecoms bid

BANGKOK, Oct 12 – Supporters and opponents of Tuesday’s auction of third-generation (3G) telecoms wireless licences are anxiously waiting for the Administrative Court’s ruling on whether the bid will go ahead as scheduled.

Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn, commissioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said after testifying to the Administrative Court Thursday that the court has yet to decide on an academic’s petition seeking to suspend the auction of the 2100 megahertz bandwidth to use with the 3G technology.

Anuparb Tiralarb, former president of the Thailand Telecommunication Management Academy, earlier sought an injunction to stop the NBTC from carrying out the bid.

The Administrative Court informed both parties that it will let them know its decision soon--as soon as possible--but did not give a time frame.

Insisting that the auction will be held Tuesday as scheduled, Mr Sithipol said suspending the planned auction will severely damage the country by more than Bt200 million. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2012-10-12