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Spectrum row comes to boil
USANEE MONGKOLPORN
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- THE GOVERNMENT must invoke Article 44 of the provisional constitution to solve the problems related to spectrum use, according to a joint proposal to be submitted by the Information and Communications Technology Ministry and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

ICT Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa said yesterday after a meeting of the ministry and the NBTC to seek ways to settle differences over spectrum use that they agreed to ask Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to exercise his extreme powers to clear up the issues.

Also at the meeting were representatives of CAT Telecom and TOT. One problem is the two state enterprises' desire to keep their spectra after the concessions that they granted expire, while the NBTC is keen to reclaim them for reallocation via an auction.

Pornchai said he could not tell now whether CAT and TOT would be able to keep their spectra after the concessions end, as they have requested, pending the ministry's complete discussion with Prayut on the country's overall spectrum management plan.

Colonel Sanpachai Huvanan-dana, CAT's acting chief executive officer, said the agency had asked for the ministry's permission to keep the currently idle 20 megahertz of the 1,800MHz spectrum until 2025, instead of 2018 when the 1,800MHz concession it granted to Total Access Communication (DTAC) expires.

CAT granted the 1,800MHz bandwidth to DTAC, of which the company currently uses only half.

TOT acting president Montchai Noosong said his agency wanted to keep its part of the 900MHz spectrum totalling 17.5MHz after the 900MHz concession it granted to Advanced Info Service (AIS) expires next month.

It also wants AIS to transfer its customers to itself, saying that AIS customers belong to it under the concession. However, the ministry said it would not take this issue to the prime minister.

Somkiat Tangkitvanich, president of the Thailand Development Research Institute, said the auctions might not be able to take place, as the state telecom enterprises might mount a legal challenge against the auctions.

He made the remark in a seminar on the planned NBTC fourth-generation spectrum auctions hosted by NBTC Policy Watch, where he was one of the guest speakers.

Pornthep Benya-apikul, an economics lecturer at Thammasat University, said the NBTC should hold a multi-band auction of 900MHz and 1,800MHz, instead of the planned separate auctions in the same month - November.

The regulator should also split the bandwidth on both spectra into 5MHz slots to give small bidders a chance to clinch spectrum licences.

The NBTC plans to auction in November two licences for 900MHz featuring 10MHz bandwidth each and two licences for 1,800MHz, which are expected to feature 15MHz bandwidth each.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Spectrum-row-comes-to-boil-30266766.html

-- The Nation 2015-08-18