4G: NBTC stands by its right to auction

[webfact]

4G AUCTION
NBTC stands by its right to auction
Usanee Mongkolporn
The Nation


The NBTC yesterday holds a mock auction of 1,800MHz licences for executives of all four bidders. Seen in the picture are executives of the parentcompanies of three bidders: Athueck Asvanund, second left, True Corp

BANGKOK: -- The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has the right to auction the 900-megahertz spectrum it reclaimed from TOT, the regulator's secretary-general said yesterday.

Takorn Tantasith said he was confident the auctions of two 1,800MHz licences and two 900MHz licences would take place as scheduled on November 11 and December 15 respectively.

His remarks were prompted by the TOT labour union's submission of a legal complaint on Wednesday to the Central Administrative Court against the NBTC's planned 900MHz auction of to defend the state agency's right to continue using that spectrum.

The union also asked the court to make a final ruling on the date by which TOT's rights to the spectrum should end. The choices are August 3, 2025, when its licence under the NBTC expires, and September 30, 2015, when the 900MHz concession it granted to Advanced Info Service (AIS) expires. Next week, the union will ask for a court injunction to suspend the NBTC's auction of 900MHz licences.

The union's lawsuit covers 24 people, of whom 11 are NBTC commissioners and seven are former members of the now-defunct National Telecommunications Commission.

The NBTC yesterday held a mock auction of the 1,800MHz licences for the four qualified bidders, which are Advanced Wireless Network of AIS, DTAC TriNet of Total Access Communication, True Move H Universal Communication of True Corp and Jas Mobile Broadband of Jasmine International.

On the official auction date, each of them can send 10 representatives to the bidding room. The bid will start at 10am.

The mock auction of 900MHz licences will be held on December 2.

Meanwhile, CAT Telecom and the NBTC met with Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam yesterday to seek a way out of CAT's problem regarding the 1,800MHz spectrum.

CAT wants the NBTC to permit it to upgrade its idle 20MHz of bandwidth on that spectrum to provide fourth-generation wireless broadband service. It requested this several months ago but the NBTC telecom committee has yet to look into the matter.

CAT has granted half of the 50MHz it owns on the 1,800MHz spectrum to Total Access Communication (DTAC), which is using only 25MHz. CAT has allocated 5MHz of the remaining portion to the NBTC and claims the right to use the idle 20MHz portion to provide 4G service.

Takorn said the NBTC was ready to permit CAT to upgrade the use of 1,800MHz but CAT needs to obtain the consent of DTAC.

CAT has also requested that the NBTC permit it to extend this 1,800MHz term to 2025 from |2018 when the DTAC concession expires.

Takorn said the NBTC had no authority to grant the request. He cited a resolution of the now-defunct state-run Frequency Allocation Panel, which states that the terms of the mobile-phone spectra would expire on the same day as the mobile-phone service concessions expire.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/NBTC-stands-by-its-right-to-auction-30272368.html

-- The Nation 2015-11-06