Winners of 2.1GHz auction pick up their 3G licences

SIRIVISH TOOMGUM

THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- Executives of the three telecom firms that won slots on the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum picked up their licences from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday, setting in motion the coming of the full third-generation cellular era in Thailand.

Among them were Advanced Info Service (AIS) vice chairman Somprasong Boonyachai, Total Access Communication (DTAC) chief executive officer Jon Eddy Abdullah and True Corp CEO Suphachai Chearavanont.

"Today is a very good day for Thailand and Thai consumers. Under the leadership of the NBTC and the ICT Ministry, Thailand now charges ahead," Abdullah said.

The three bid winners have already requested from the watchdog a combined 20 million mobile-phone numbers with the 091 prefix for providing the 3G service during the first year.

The NBTC, which is considering the companies' requests, is likely to allocate the numbers in March, as they are expected to launch the 3G service in April. The fee is Bt1 per number per month.

The three winners in the commission's 2.1GHz spectrum auction held in October are AIS's Advanced Wireless Network, DTAC subsidiary DTAC Network, and True Corp's Real Future.

Advanced Wireless was expected to request 10 million 3G numbers from the watchdog.

NBTC chairman Thares Punsri signed the 2.1GHz spectrum licences and telecom business licences yesterday, enabling the three firms to operate this type of business. Both types of licence have a 15-year term, starting from December 7.

Thares added that next year the NBTC would focus on the plan to auction the 1,800-megahertz spectrum for the provision of fourth-generation service.

STRICT COMPLIANCE

Meanwhile, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasit said the 3G licence holders had to comply strictly with key conditions attached to the licences.

The first of these is the requirement that they establish networks covering 50 per cent of the population within two years of obtaining the licences, rising to 80 per cent of the population in the following two years.

Second, the companies have to comply with regulations governing the speed of their mobile data transmission, and third, they must comply with standards governing telecom service quality.

The other key requirement is that they must each set voice and data service tariffs at a rate 15 per cent lower than the average fees of all operators in the market on December 7. The NBTC is calculating the benchmark price for the three companies.

Takorn believes that all three licence holders will be able to establish their networks in major cities within a few months and complete coverage of 50 per cent of the population within the first year.

He added that the 3G licence holders also had to comply strictly with the NBTC's 2006 regulations governing the standard mobile-phone service contract, which prohibit all telecom operators from setting the validity periods in their prepaid service.

If they want to fix the validity periods, they have to seek the watchdog's permission to do so in advance.

The Central Administrative Court last month declined to issue an injunction as a result of TrueMove's petition against the NBTC's order that mobile-phone operators cannot fix the validity periods of their prepaid service and the imposition of daily fines of Bt100,000 until they cancel the periods.

However, the court did accept the TrueMove case into judicial review.

Meanwhile, the NBTC will pass half of the total final up-front fee it gained from the spectrum auction, plus interest, to the Finance Ministry today.

This amounts to Bt22.269 billion and interest of Bt55 million, but Bt40 million will be deducted for the cost of the auction before the sum is passed to the ministry.

-- The Nation 2012-12-12

With the speed of a striking slug.......

"Today is a very good day for Thailand and Thai consumers. Under the leadership of the NBTC and the ICT Ministry, Thailand now charges ahead," Abdullah said.

The other key requirement is that they must each set voice and data service tariffs at a rate 15 per cent lower than the average fees of all operators in the market on December 7.

They better had included a key requirement that they must set service at a rate 500 % higher than the average service of the operators in the market on December 7.

Bottom line is the telecom 3 little piggies will get exactly what they want, buy and invest for cheap, and sell 3g operations at an expensive price.... I mean NOOOOOT YET,... because there ARE STILL GONNA BE many other FINALIZATION PROCESSES,....which according to other news will take another 6 months, to be determined ,.... and if anything goes wrong,.........GOD FORBID....

Next thing that's likely gonna happen,.... there'll be so many mobile phone users in Bangkok, that the broadband network is getting overloaded with trillions of people sending messages and data, surfing the 3G internet, etc... and with ZERO investment in the necessary infrastructure....

And if outdated broadband networks get OVERLOADED,....you know what happens NEXT .....

Remember if you put an elephant on a shaky wooden dangling Amazon bridge,..... what will happen?

Oh never mind the rest of the world will have 6G or 7G already by the time...

Edited December 12, 201213 yr by MaxLee

"Today is a very good day for Thailand and Thai consumers. Under the leadership of the NBTC and the ICT Ministry, Thailand now charges ahead," Abdullah said.

Yea, like a lone charging horse out of the starting-gate....the only problem is all the other horses left the gate years ago.

STRICT COMPLIANCE

Meanwhile, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasit said the 3G licence holders had to comply strictly with key conditions attached to the licences.

The first of these is the requirement that they establish networks covering 50 per cent of the population within two years of obtaining the licences, rising to 80 per cent of the population in the following two years.

Second, the companies have to comply with regulations governing the speed of their mobile data transmission, and third, they must comply with standards governing telecom service quality.

The other key requirement is that they must each set voice and data service tariffs at a rate 15 per cent lower than the average fees of all operators in the market on December 7. The NBTC is calculating the benchmark price for the three companies.

You can bet the coverage requirement will be met by expanding service in the high population areas and cities first....folks out in the country/sticks will still be waiting for phone lines to reach their homes or still using satellite internet. But let's hope there is good coverage for folks living out in the villages...but just because it's 2100Mhz coverage does not mean wider coverage than like the 850/900MHz coverage currently being used by AIS/DTAC/True, because 2100Mhz has less range than 850/900Mhz unless a bunch more 2100Mhz towers/radios are installed to make-up for the lower range/building penetration ability of 2100Mhz.

If companies are currently complying with regulation requirements for speed and quality, then I expect complying in the future will be just as easy (i.e., widely varying speeds and quality). But let's hope.

I bet the companies are having daily brainstorming meetings in trying to figure out how to make it appear tariffs will be reduced 15% when in fact they probably won't....smoke-and-mirrors. But let's hope.

He added that the 3G licence holders also had to comply strictly with the NBTC's 2006 regulations governing the standard mobile-phone service contract, which prohibit all telecom operators from setting the validity periods in their prepaid service.

If they want to fix the validity periods, they have to seek the watchdog's permission to do so in advance.

The Central Administrative Court last month declined to issue an injunction as a result of TrueMove's petition against the NBTC's order that mobile-phone operators cannot fix the validity periods of their prepaid service and the imposition of daily fines of Bt100,000 until they cancel the periods.

I can sure understand why companies like True are fighting these. Lord knows how many pre-paid minutes go unused/expire each month which is the same as putting extra money in the company's pocket...would indeed be nice for unused minutes to not expire, roll over, or at least last for a much longer period.

"The three bid winners have already requested from the watchdog a combined 20 million mobile-phone numbers with the 091 prefix for providing the 3G service during the first year."

Say what now? I need a new number? And why would they even need a new number block for that? So people can show of? And I already have hsdpa .. will that disappear? I don't get this stuff.. so many questions..

I wager the telecommunications minister (whoever it is) made an absolute phucking fortune out of this!

Just in time to be obsolete ?

Govt supplied license to rip customers of to the hilt. Marketing strategies that will confuse 99% of the population to make them believe they ared getting a really cheap deal. Seen it before and here it comes again.

"He added that the 3G licence holders also had to comply strictly with the NBTC's 2006 regulations governing the standard mobile-phone service contract, which prohibit all telecom operators from setting the validity periods in their prepaid service"

So if validity periods in prepaid service have been illegal since 2006, why do my AIS minutes expire??

Soon we'll have 3G, any day now. The world has moved on a wee bit in the mean time and 2013 seems the "year of 4G LTE"

"LTE Phone Shipments Will Triple To 275M Units In 2013, With Amazon + Mozilla Among Those Waiting In The Wings To Pounce

We are far from global ubiquity for LTE and other 4G networks, but carriers in markets that have implemented the faster mobile data standard are seeing a boom in growth. Figures out today from Strategy Analytics predict that shipments of LTE devices will hit 275 million units in 2013, a three-fold rise from the 90.9 million that have been shipped this year. And while a lot of this is being driven by strong competition among handset makers and carriers, Strategy Analytics predicts that the rise of 4G will bring something else to light: new entrants like Amazon and Mozilla also trying their hands at LTE devices."

http://techcrunch.co...ings-to-pounce/