Jury Still Out On 3G Bidding 'farce'

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Jury still out on 3G bidding 'farce'

Tulsathit Taptim

BANGKOK: -- Critics of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission might have missed the point. And so might critics of the critics of the NBTC. But it doesn't matter. It's our right to criticise and force the people involved to do something about it that counts. This is what differentiates today from the pre-NBTC era.

The fact that we all have been able to throw brickbats at the high-powered panel, forcing it to take steps toward protecting consumers' interests, is a far cry from many years ago, and we should celebrate it instead of just sitting around feeling grumpy. The 3G bidding was an eyesore at best, but it took place in plain view and was presided over by people whose skins are thinner than politicians. Under the circumstances, we couldn't have asked for a lot more.

The critics of the NBTC are either unsympathetic or too idealistic. The agency has had a big dilemma hanging over its members' heads. The 10 men and one woman are supposed to make sure that every single Thai benefits from TV and cellular signals, which are constitutionally designated as natural resources that belong to the country. That's a job description that's easy to write but damned hard to follow.

Put yourself in the NBTC's shoes. What would you do - give away free licences to operators so they charge customers the minimum in fees thanks to minimum investment costs, or hold a bidding process for licences so as to fill the state coffers with big bucks? Advocates of each approach can argue all day long, but the NBTC made its decision in favour of the bidding, the final result of which is not yet fully known.

Once the NBTC opted for the auction, the panel faced another tricky crossroads. On one hand, the basic purpose of any auction is to achieve the maximum price. On the other hand, the NBTC was confronted with the issue of consumers' interests again. If the panel let the bids go too high, the winners would surely pass the burden of their investment onto customers.

The NBTC chose the middle ground. It called for bidding on the 3G telecom licences but set median prices - which many said were ridiculously low. The result should not have surprised any of us. Last week's auction for 3G "slots" by big-name telecom operators turned out to be "farcical", with offers hugging the median prices for dear life. Newspapers and social media screamed "Conspiracy!" in response.

Conspiracy or not, the critics have forgotten that this was as good as we could possibly get. Imagine what would have happened had power over the telecom industry remained in the hands of politicians: the Yingluck government giving away free licences, perhaps? Or bidding that delivered a host of suspicious names among the winners? Imagine the exasperation if the best we could hope for was that criticism made its way to Parliament, where it would be easily defeated by the government's overwhelming majority.

We don't want to return to the old days when concession-givers and concession-holders were essentially the same people, and when politicians and the military had a big say in which signals went where. The NBTC makeup is far from perfect, and steps taken in the 3G saga might have been suspicious, but would you rather suspect the NBTC, or the Information and Communication Technology Ministry?

At least we can slam the NBTC and hope for concrete and immediate results. This is the whole point of having the NBTC. And this is the point that the critics of the critics of the NBTC have missed. The post-bidding uproar has led to talk of putting a ceiling on 3G service fees. Nothing concrete has yet been done on this, but it's certainly easier to get some action taken now than it was when the ICT Ministry was running the show.

All I'm saying to the critics of the NBTC is, give the panel a break. As one commissioner told reporters recently, you can "democratise" anything - except the telecom business. Who has Bt4.5 billion to begin with, apart from all the familiar faces in AIS, Dtac or True boardrooms? For now 3G remains a rich men's toy. Things will change, absolutely, but not yet.

And to those criticising the critics of the NBTC, give them a break. The NBTC can be scrutinised - and has to be. That's what the constitutional change shifting the telecom regulatory power from politicians to an independent panel was all about.

Two schools of thought clashed bitterly after last week's bidding. Forget the low bids, said one camp, because, when the telecom operators spend less in investment, they will charge you less. Wake up, retorted the pessimists - and this group had a point. "Same speed" competition does not make the iPad significantly cheaper than, say, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Ipad and Tab producers will, subconsciously at least, collude to keep the prices high until the "new speed" comes along, and they will both dump the prices of the "old generation" products without shame.

So, the jury is still out on the NBTC and the "farcical bidding". If service charges are appreciably low, then last week can be forgotten. But if the consumers are still taken advantage of, then the panel will have some serious explaining to do. That will be a "small step forward" that we can live without. We expect more from the NBTC.

Many people are complaining that nothing has changed, that the key telecom players are still the same names as 10 years ago, that the nepotism and monopoly which once prevailed has been replaced by collusion, which can be as bad. The biggest development to come that will override everything else involves whether or not the consumers will benefit. If the NBTC can deliver services that are cheap and good, we can worry about the rest later.

"Cheap and good services" - if we can sum up the constitutional mission of the NBTC in four words - will be mission accomplished.

-- The Nation 2012-10-24

[asiawatcher]

Good article and the best point being "... Imagine what would have happened had power over the telecom industry remained in the hands of politicians: the Yingluck government ..."

[chooka]

How long does it take to agree on the size of a brown paper bag?