New NBTC to begin search for secretary

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is required by the Frequency Allocation Law to name a secretary-general within 90 days after getting off the ground.
The watchdog will also prepare administrative units to oversee telecom and broadcasting affairs. Current-ly it has 900 staff, of whom 100 have handled broadcasting affairs under the now-defunct National Telecommuni-cations Commission (NTC), while the rest have handled telecom affairs.
An NBTC source said the watchdog was expected to take one or two months to complete these internal processes.
At the same time, it will focus on developing a spectrum-management master plan.
Colonel Settapong Malisuwan, who has been named vice chairman in charge of the NBTC telecom committee, has said the commission is expected to auction the long-awaited licences for third-generation wireless broadband service on the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum by the middle of next year. The watchdog can quickly draw up the auction plan by basing it on the existing plan of the NTC. He said the new plan would only change some legal and technological details. It will be up to the NBTC whether it will carry on with the NTC’s telecom and broadcasting master plans or develop its own.
Recently, Colonel Natee Sukonrat, NBTC vice chairman in charge of the broadcasting committee, said its urgent task was to draw up plans to regulate the community radio, TV and radio sectors and to switch the TV broadcasting industry from analogue to digital technology. He aims to achieve these within three years, in cooperation with the broadcast industry.
As TV viewers will need digital set-top boxes after the switch from analogue, the broadcasting committee is expected to ask broadcasters to cover part of the cost of these devices for viewers. The rest will be funded by an NBTC budget.
The selection process for NBTC commissioners has been fraught with legal challenges. Some failed candidates filed lawsuits at the Central Administrative Court alleging that the process was unlawful, and the court has accepted some cases for judicial review. The Department of Special Investigation has also probed similar complaints.
Last week, the Office of the Auditor-General recommended to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that the government amend flaws it had uncovered in the Frequency Allocation Law of 2010 to protect the national interest. It is especially concerned about the clause related to how the watchdog spends the fees it collects. The law gave birth to the NBTC.