NBTC earmarks Feb 10 for public hearing on master plans
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has set the tentative date of February 10 to hold a one-day nationwide public hearing on the telecom, broadcasting and spectrum master plans, as it races to meet its planned granting of 2.
In parallel, the watchdog will draft the terms of reference for auctioning the 2.1GHz licences, NBTC telecom committee chairman Colonel Settapong Malisuwan said this week.
The licences are for the provision of advanced cellular broadband services on International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) systems.
While Settapong declined to specify the number of licences that are planned, he said each could contain 15MHz of spectrum bandwidth, which would be big enough for holders to provide high-quality service.
He added that the hearing on the telecom and broadcasting master plans and the spectrum management master plan would be held simultaneously in four regions, and on one day only. The master plans are key to the NBTC’s granting of the new spectrum licences.
He expects the three master plans and the terms of reference for the 2.1GHz licence auction will be published in the Royal Gazette in March and May, respectively.
The watchdog feels the need to grant 2.1GHz licences as quickly as possible, as it regards them as an effective solution to current public complaints over poor call-service quality of the cellular networks.
Settapong said cellular operators did not want to invest more on improving their existing 2G networks, as they want to save cash for 3G network roll-out after getting the necessary licences.
He added that it was not practical for some operators to provide bandwidth-hungry 3G broadband service on the small bandwidth of their existing spectra.
The NBTC will also determine for the licence auction the terms of reference that the winners are obliged to follow to ensure their overall service quality.
The commission has focused on cellular operators’ network quality, following three network problems at Total Access Communication (DTAC) over recent weeks.
The NBTC is also drafting regulations to govern data service quality in preparation for the forthcoming full 3G era.
The granting of 2.1GHz licences will benefit the telecom operators that win them, as they are then likely to migrate their customers from the existing state concession regime with its high regulatory fees to the licence regime, which will have lower fees.
Under the licences, they will also have full ownership of the networks they build, unlike the existing concession regime under which they have to transfer their network assets to the state concession owners, TOT or CAT Telecom, under the Build Transfer Operate arrangement.
