Players seek single round

   DTAC chief executive officer Jon Eddy Abdullah said he floated the idea to Advanced Info Service (AIS) last week and would soon meet with True Corp CEO Supachai Chearavanont.
Abdullah said that once all are agreed, the proposal would be forwarded to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and to the Information |and Communications Technology Ministry.
“We are open for initiatives to solve the telecom industry’s problems. I talked to the No 1 player [AIS] last week. Now I’m open for an idea from the No 3 player [True],” Abdullah said.
Supachai earlier proposed that the auctions of 2.1-gigahertz and 1,800-megahertz spectra licences be held at the same time, saying it would give a clearer picture to telecom operators of the cost involved. He said the auction should take place before TrueMove and Digital Phone’s concessions under the 1,800MHz spectrum expire in September next year.
Abdullah said cellular operators’ existing bandwidth was insufficient, and everyone needed more spectra to serve rising demand for broadband cellular service.
He added that DTAC wanted to return 25MHz of bandwidth under its 1,800MHz spectrum to the NBTC for reallocation, before the concession expires in 2018. This would boost the NBTC’s total bandwidth for auction under the spectrum to 50MHz, including the 12.5MHz bandwidth block from TrueMove-Digital Phone. With this huge bandwidth, the NBTC could issue three licences.
Together with three licences utilising 45MHz of bandwidth under the 2.1GHz spectrum, the watchdog could offer six licences at the same time, Abdullah said.
“I think the NBTC should auction both 2.1GHz and 1,800MHz [licences] at the same time, so it will have a total of 45MHz bandwidth of 2.1GHz spectrum and 50MHz bandwidth of 1,800MHz spectrum for auction. We can’t wait for another year, as the industry needs frequencies,” he said.
If such a plan were adopted, DTAC would bid for licences under both spectra. And if the NBTC offered more licences, it would earn more money, he said.

OBSTACLES
The NBTC intends to auction the 2.1GHz spectrum licences in the third quarter, but has yet to finalise the details.
Abdullah sees little chance that the watchdog will be able to proceed with the auction as scheduled, given the many issues that need to be cleared up.
A telecom industry observer said DTAC was expected to face the most problems among operators if the 2.1GHz spectrum auction is delayed. Without licences under the new spectrum, AIS could still provide third-generation services after the end of its concession in 2015 through its partnership with TOT. True Group, meanwhile, has partnered with CAT Telecom to offer 14-year 3G service on the agency’s 850MHz spectrum.