Joint panel for spectrum reuse
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The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) plans to set up a joint committee with the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to reclaim part of TOT's 2.3-gigahertz spectrum for reallocation.
Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the NBTC’s telecom committee, said yesterday that he had mentioned the idea to ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap.
The joint committee will work out a plan in which TOT will be asked to return voluntarily part of its 64-megahertz bandwidth portion of the 2.3GHz spectrum to the NBTC, which would then reallocate the spectrum by granting licences to providers of fourth-generation advanced cellular broadband service.
Settapong hopes to reclaim bandwidth amounting to at least 20MHz from TOT. If the NBTC can reclaim as much as 40MHz of bandwidth, it will be able to grant at least two spectrum licences.
If TOT agrees to give part of its spectrum to the NBTC, the watchdog would in return permit the state agency to use the remaining spectrum to provide any advanced cellular broadband service.
Currently, TOT utilises this portion of the spectrum to provide public telephone services in remote areas.
Settapong said the telecom committee has also held informal talks with MCOT to ask it to give up part of its 2.5GHz spectrum to NBTC for reallocation. In a related matter, the NBTC telecom committee was yesterday due to appoint a subcommittee to study legal aspects of the CAT Telecom-True Corp deals to form a partnership to provide third-generation cellular service on 850MHz.
The study will focus on whether the use of the spectrum under these deals complies with the 2010 Frequency Allocation Law. The telecom committee will seek the NBTC board’s approval of the subcommittee appointment today.
Next week, the NBTC’s subcommittee assigned to draft the plan for auctioning 2.1GHz licences will convene to discuss a proposal to hire a consultant to help in the draft process.
The NBTC intends to hold an auction of 2.1GHz spectrum licences in the third quarter. It has issued new regulations and is revising some others to encourage new and foreign players to bid.
Next week, the NBTC will finalise which of its existing regulations aimed at preventing foreign dominance of the telecom industry will be revised.
