Final draft rules up for NBTC study
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is expected to consider on May 16 the final draft regulations preventing foreign dominance of the local telecom industry.
Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the NBTC’s telecom committee, said yesterday that the committee had approved the draft and would forward it to the commissioners.
The regulations are a key element of the NBTC’s plan to auction 2.1-gigahertz spectrum licences next quarter to prospective providers of third-generation cellular broadband service.
The draft reflects feedback from a public hearing in December on the need for changes to the anti-dominance rules issued by the now-defunct National Telecommunications Commission, which took effect last August. Unlike the existing regulations, the new draft does not touch on the issue of national security or require the NBTC to consult with national security agencies if it finds that a licence holder appears to have breached regulations.
Advanced Info Service has Singapore Telecom as its strategic partner, while Total Access Communication (DTAC) has Norway’s Telenor. True Corp is the only local telecom operator without a foreign strategic partner.
DTAC filed a petition to the Central Administrative Court last November to scrap the existing foreign-dominance regulations, claiming that they were illegal and unconstitutional.
True Corp supports the existing regulations as a necessary way to prevent foreign-owned entities from competing against local telecom operators in bidding for key spectrum licences, citing national security. But some parties say the regulations should be revoked, as they might compromise Thailand’s commitments to global trade organisations.
The NBTC yesterday reviewed its achievements in the first six months of its establishment.
One is the completion of the spectrum-management master plan and also the telecom and broadcasting master plans, which went into effect last month.
