NBTC likely to hire locally for auction draft
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Shocked by the high fee suggested by a foreign consultant, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's telecom committee now expects to hire local help to draw up the details of its plan to auction licences for the 2.1-gigahertz spectru
Committee chairman Settapong Malisuwan said yesterday that at first its 2.1GHz spectrum management subcommittee had approached US consultant Nera to do so but the panel changed its mind after Nera quoted a fee of between Bt16 million and Bt20 million. Therefore, the subcommittee believes that it should hire Thai academicians or a Thai consultant for the task instead.
The subcommittee had approached Nera first as the now-defunct National Telecom-munications Commis-sion had hired the firm as its adviser in drawing up its licence-auction plan and to organise the auction itself.
However, the NTC auction plan was suspended by the Central Administrative Court in September 2010 after CAT Telecom challenged the commission’s licensing authority.
The NBTC’s auction plan is based on the NTC’s.
Settapong said the subcommittee assigned NBTC commissioner Prasert Silphiphat to
take charge of hiring the consultants.
The subcommittee will still hire a foreign firm to conduct the auction itself, he added. Besides Nera, another US-based firm, Auction Technology, is on the list of possibilities for the job. The subcommittee will approach them soon, Settapong said.
The subcommittee will set up two working committees to consider the technical and legal process of the auction respectively.
Settapong is confident that the NBTC can fulfil its intention to call the bids for the 2.1GHz spectrum in the third quarter.
In a separate matter, the NBTC will revise the draft regulations governing the quality of mobile data service.
The watchdog had developed the draft in preparation for the exploding mobile data traffic expected in the era of full third-generation cellular service.
The telecom committee yesterday also approved the request of Total Access Communication (DTAC) for 1.1 million additional mobile phone numbers to be used this year.
Meanwhile, Settapong said the NBTC and TOT would have to hold more detailed talks if the state agency really wants to return only part of its 2.3GHz spectrum to the commission for reallocation and keep 34 megahertz of bandwidth to provide 4G service.
This week TOT board chairman Panthep Chamrasromran said the agency would advise the NBTC that it is willing to return 30MHz of its 2.3GHz spectrum to the commission for reallocation and keep the rest for 4G.
