Thai Committee Formed For 4G Auction

[webfact]

Committee formed for 4G auction

BANGKOK, 21 March 2013 (NNT) - The National Telecommunications Commissions of NBTC has set up a sub-committee to prepare and oversee the auction for licences of 1800 MHz frequency bands, to be used for 4G services.

According to Colonel Settaphong Malisuwan, chairman of the commission, who will also head the sub-committee, said that the sub-committee would be tasked with determining, within one year, the auction methods and setting the minimum requirements for companies eligible to participate.

The 1800 MHz frequency bands will be used for the 4G services; however, they are currently owned by the networks of True Move and Digital Phones (DPC), the concessionaires. The concessions will end in September this year.

Colonel Settaphong said that the commission has also set up a team to oversee compensations for consumers affected by the ending of True Move's and DTC's concessions.


-- NNT 2013-03-21

[kurnell]

How about crawling before you walk??

[lomatopo]

How about crawling before you walk??

Agreed. There are almost no 4G/LTE capable handsets, other than the iPhone 5, in the marketplace here, and it might not be feasible to expect everyone to upgrade their phones presently? It could be a year or so before there are enough LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz) handsets to warrant service deployment.

Once the 1800 MHz spectrum is returned, if it is ultimately is returned, when TrueMove's concession ends on 15 September 2013 (that's in six months when 18 million subscribers will be left without service!), then maybe they can auction that spectrum. Obviously this will be a great thing, not so much for speed or throughout, but for the extra capacity it will allow service providers.

Note that DTAC's concession for 1800 MHz runs until 2018, so they could in theory re-farm that to LTE tomorrow, or once they've made some room by turning up their 2100 MHz service.

They had originally planned to hold the auction around this time (March - May), but that has obviously slipped.

Anyway, this is good news.

[LuckyLew]

Some people must have made some good coin on the recent 3G auctions

that they figure that will now hold a 4G auction then towards the end of

the summer they will hold a 5G

Internet in Thailand sucks, coverage is incomplete, service is poor ...

How about they get 3G up an working first ...

[Locationthailand]

Good grief, they have just scammed billions for the 3G (non existent) network and already looking to undermine the bidders by offering a 4G which should have been what should have bee sold initially.

[tragickingdom]

And when will the Auction be held in 2020 when the rest of the world has 6G?

[IsaanUSA]

How about crawling before you walk??

Agreed. There are almost no 4G/LTE capable handsets, other than the iPhone 5, in the marketplace here, and it might not be feasible to expect everyone to upgrade their phones presently? It could be a year or so before there are enough LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz) handsets to warrant service deployment.

But what comes first....the authorization to use the spectrum or the handsets that support the spectrum? (half joking / half serious)

[lomatopo]

How about crawling before you walk??

Agreed. There are almost no 4G/LTE capable handsets, other than the iPhone 5, in the marketplace here, and it might not be feasible to expect everyone to upgrade their phones presently? It could be a year or so before there are enough LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz) handsets to warrant service deployment.

But what comes first....the authorization to use the spectrum or the handsets that support the spectrum? (half joking / half serious)

Obviously a great question. I think you will see more LTE band 3 capable handsets being sold here - there are quite a few (iPhone 5/A1429, Nokia Lumia 920, Sony Xperia Z, HTC One XL, Samsung Galaxy Note II 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II & IV 4G, Droid Razor M 4G, et al.) - both by service providers, perhaps bundled with premium 2100 MHz 3G services(?), and in the retail channels, over the coming year.

For some service providers here, in many locations, once they have acquired the spectrum, it will simply be a matter of flipping a switch to re-farm to 1800 MHz LTE. DTAC does have 5,000 1800 MHz 3G base-stations up and running today, many of which could be re-farmed to LTE. And presumably there will ~ 40,000 2100 MHz base-stations being turned up over the next ~ 18 months (by AIS, DTAC and TrueMove) which could also be re-farmed.

[IsaanUSA]

Thanks. Here is what I dont understand......I'm going to simplify it even more....

You have a phone that supports 3G and 4G. The phone works on frequencies of 1 and 2. Does that mean the phone can receive 3g signals over 1 and 2 and 4G over 1 and 2? Or is the 3G locked into frequency 1 and 4G locked into 2?

[IsaanUSA]

Anybody have an answer to the above questions?

[lomatopo]

Anybody have an answer to the above questions?

In the simplest terms, what happens today when you move outside of 3G coverage? You fall-back or roam onto 2G. Or when you roam from AIS to TOT? But a service provider could set up any sort of profile for you as a subscriber, and you might have to configure your phone. And I'm not certain I understand your reference to frequencies #1 and #2, perhaps an example would help? Note that there are multiple "spectra" within a given frequency band or range.

[Shurup]

I think what he means is one frequency for 3G and another one for 4G... Kind of like 850 MHz for 2G and 1900 for 3G??? I think it's a lot more complicated than this...

[thaicbr]

How about crawling before you walk??

Agreed. There are almost no 4G/LTE capable handsets, other than the iPhone 5, in the marketplace here, and it might not be feasible to expect everyone to upgrade their phones presently? It could be a year or so before there are enough LTE Band 3 (1800 MHz) handsets to warrant service deployment.

Once the 1800 MHz spectrum is returned, if it is ultimately is returned, when TrueMove's concession ends on 15 September 2013 (that's in six months when 18 million subscribers will be left without service!), then maybe they can auction that spectrum. Obviously this will be a great thing, not so much for speed or throughout, but for the extra capacity it will allow service providers.

Note that DTAC's concession for 1800 MHz runs until 2018, so they could in theory re-farm that to LTE tomorrow, or once they've made some room by turning up their 2100 MHz service.

They had originally planned to hold the auction around this time (March - May), but that has obviously slipped.

Anyway, this is good news.

I wondered where DTAC's 1800mhz went to! As far as i'm aware they hold the lions share of the1800 frequency.

[IsaanUSA]

I think what he means is one frequency for 3G and another one for 4G... Kind of like 850 MHz for 2G and 1900 for 3G??? I think it's a lot more complicated than this...

Right. Is 1900MHz always reserved for 3G on my phone, or can my phone differentiate between 2G/3G/4G on 1900MHz?

This is a generic question...not related to Thailand or any certain service providers. It's just a phone hardware question.

Edited March 28, 2013 by IsaanUSA

[lomatopo]

or can my phone differentiate between 2G/3G/4G on 1900MHz?

Yes.

My Samsung Galaxy SII supports:

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

In the U.S. on T-Mobile I move seamlessly from 2G/1900 MHz to 3G/1900 MHz based on serving base-station.

The terms “900 MHz” and “1900 MHz” are merely labels and not meant to represent one, single frequency, but rather smaller groups of tens of MHz grouped around 900 MHz or 1900 MHz.

In this case of T-Mo 2G/1900 MHz and T-Mo 3G/1900 MHz, the former might be 1,851 – 1870 (Up) and 1911 – 1930 (Down) – these figures are not correct as I am not familiar with the whole Voicestream and AT&T migration over the past 20 years – and the latter might be 1,871 – 1,890 (Up)and 1,891 – 1,910 (Down).

DTAC, TrueMove and DPC (now a part of AIS) all currently have 1,800 MHz concessions here. The TrueMove 1,800 MHz concession ends on Sep.15, 2103; I think the DPC 1,800 MHz concession ends at the same time. Not sure what, exactly, will happen to the 18 million TrueMove customers? Obviously very few of them have 2100 MHz 3G compatible phones.

Edited March 28, 2013 by lomatopo

[IsaanUSA]

Thank you lomatopo