NBTC board approves master plans so licence
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission board yesterday endorsed the final drafts of three industry master plans, freeing the watchdog up to move forward on its planned auction of new spectrum licences.
The board also approved the periods within which the state agencies have to return radio, television and telecom spectra that do not have an expiry date. They must be handed over to the NBTC for reallocation within a maximum of five, 10 and 15 years respectively. Spectra under concessions will be returned once the concessions expire.
The watchdog is expected to have the spectrum-management, telecom and broadcasting master plans published in the Royal Gazette in early April, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasit said yesterday.
The NBTC needs the master plans in effect to give it legal authority to liberalise the in-|dustry further and auction new spectrum licences. It intends |to auction licences for the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum in the third quarter.
Takorn said the NBTC’s broadcasting committee yesterday proposed to the board that it wanted to shorten the periods of the radio and TV spectrum returns to four years and five years, instead of five years and 10 years respectively in the original draft of the spectrum plan.
But the telecom committee asked all commissioners to vote to finalise what should be appropriate periods for all spectrum returns, given that the spectrum plan is a matter for the NBTC board, not the telecom or broadcasting committee.
Six of the 10 commissioners at the board meeting yesterday voted to maintain the periods of radio, TV and telecom spectra return at five, 10 and 15 years respectively, as in the original draft. There are 11 commissioners but one of them, Peerapong Manakit, was absent from the meeting yesterday.
The four who wanted to shorten the spectrum return periods were Supinya Klangnarong, Prawit Leesatapornwongsa, Thavatchai Jittrapanun and Natee Sukonrat.
Natee said the broadcasting committee could later ask state radio broadcasters to return their spectra to the NBTC earlier than the five-year maximum.
Regarding the drafts of the telecom and broadcasting master plans, all 10 commissioners unanimously voted for approval.
For the return of the telecom spectra, the board added one condition – the state agencies, CAT Telecom and TOT, must return their major spectra to the NBTC within 13 years, based on the remaining periods of their existing business licences, which will end in 2025.
