Telecom: fast opening urged
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The country should quickly open up the telecommunications sector fully to create fair competition, as such a move would result in a market mechanism to effectively regulate the industry, a scholar at the Thailand Development Research Institute said yester
TDRI research director for economic governance Deunden Nokomborirak said that at the same time, the industry watchdog – the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) – had to improve existing regulations and issue new ones to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers.
She added that the ultimate goal of market liberalisation was to bring benefits to consumers.
Duenden disagreed with the perception that full market liberalisation and the welcoming of more foreign investment in the sector would have a negative impact on national security.
Such concern seems to be the excuse of some local telecom operators that do not want to see new players stealing their market share, she said. The research director said the sector also needed political stability in order to attract substantial foreign investment.
She made the remarks at a TDRI seminar on the appropriate direction for Thailand to open up its telecom market.
The NBTC is working on new regulations to support its intention to auction 3G-2.1GHz licences in the third quarter.
It has been speculated that the Kingdom’s three incumbent telecom operators – Advanced Info Service, Total Access Communication and True Corp – will be the only bidders at the auction.
