Operators want NBTC to unveil roadmap soon
Telecom and broadcasting operators will urge the national broadcasting and telecom regulator to announce its complete spectrum allocation roadmap as soon as possible to enable them to prepare future business plans.
The state telecom agencies will also ask the watchdog how it would compensate them once they return their spectra for reallocation.
They will voice these points at the nationwide public hearing on Friday of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) on drafts of the spectrum management master plan and the telecom and broadcasting master plans.
A True Corp source said the company would raise its concern on the use of telecom spectra, which could have an impact on national security.
It will also propose to the NBTC to examine which companies inefficiently utilise their existing telecom spectra. The watchdog should take back the spectra from these companies within five years for reallocation.
True’s pay-TV operator, TrueVisions, will ask the NBTC to come up with a clear plan to protect the copyright of pay-TV content. The watchdog should also work with the government to set clear details for developing the digital-TV broadcasting system in Thailand.
A Total Access Communication (DTAC) source said the company needs to see the overall spectrum allocation timeframe as soon as possible to enable it to prepare for future investment in 3G and beyond 3G service broadband cellular businesses. It also needs to see how the NBTC would promote the 3G wholesale-resale business.
A source at Advanced Info Service (AIS) said the watchdog should hurry to devise the plan to deal with the approaching end of the cellular concessions and how to prevent mobile-phone users from being affected by the end of the concession.
The concession term of AIS subsidiary Digital Phone Co will end late next year, the same time as that of TrueMove, while that of AIS will end in 2015 and DTAC in 2018.
After the concession ends, the cellular operators have to return their network asset to the state concession owners, who in turn will return their spectra to the NBTC for reallocation.
NBTC commissioner Settapong Malisuwan said it would conclude by April the plan to deal with the end of the concession, the plan to transfer customers after the end of concessions, and the plan to grant interim licences to concession holders during the transfer of customers after the concession ends. He has already asked TrueMove to propose measures to the NBTC on dealing with the end of its concession.
A TOT source said that the state agency would ask the NBTC how the TOT will be compensated once it returns its spectra, which has no fixed expiry date, as part of the watchdog’s spectrum management master plan. The plan obliges all state agencies to return their spectra, which were not granted to the concession holders, to the NBTC at determined periods.
TOT, which holds NBTC’s type-3 licences, is also concerned about the NBTC’s draft of the new Universal Service Obligation (USO) regulations, which will impose USO tax of 4 per cent of the licence-holders’ revenue on all types of licence holders.
Under the existing USO regulations, the licence holders do not have to pay the USO tax if they volunteer to provide telecom services in remote areas. But the planned new regulations will oblige all licence holders to make the USO contribution.
Some scholars submitted their opinions on the three master plans to the NBTC last week. They recommended the watchdog to seek measures to deal with any possible impacts on mobile-phone consumers once the cellular concession terms end.
From the broadcasting side, Suwanna Sombatraksasook, president of the News Broadcasting Council of Thailand, said the NBTC should come up with clearer direction and more details of the spectrum allocation.
“We cannot clearly know how many frequencies so far should be allocated for community radio stations or even community television stations,” she said.
Lt-General Chatchai Sarikulya, president of Royal Thai Army Radio and Television station, the operator of Channel TV 5, said the state agency has been ready since last year to transform itself into a broadcaster to serve the public with focus on national security issues.
Kematat Paladesh, vice president for marketing at MCOT, said MCOT would explain to the NBTC how much it needs to retain some frequencies for serving the public interests, not for commercial purposes only.
The NBTC needs to quickly finish the three master plans and many regulations as they are key platforms to grant the new spectrum licences. It intends to auction the 2.1GHz licences in the third quarter.
Among the highlights of its draft spectrum management master plan is the reclaiming of spectrum for reallocation.
