Dtac boss confident of 2.1 GHZ auction this year
Total Access Communication (DTAC) chairman Boonchai Bencharongkul says he is confident that the auction of the much-needed 2.1-gigahertz spectrum licences to provide wireless broadband service will take place this year, as intended by the National Broadca
He voiced support for omitting the so-called N-1 condition in the planned auction, to ensure the three major private telecom operators can take part.
The NBTC’s 2.1GHz management subcommittee has proposed the simultaneous auction of nine slots of the spectrum, each containing 5 megahertz of bandwidth. Each bidder will be allowed to grab a maximum 20MHz, and there is no N-1 condition.
The aborted 2.1GHz spectrum auction of the NBTC’s predecessor, the National Telecommunications Commission, did contain the N-1 condition. It required the NTC to auction three licences, each containing 15MHz of bandwidth, if there were at least four bidders, two licences if three bidders, and one licence if two bidders. There would have been no auction if there was only one bidder. This N-1 condition was meant to ensure bidding competition, but that auction was called off in late 2010.
For the NBTC auction, it has been speculated that only Advanced Info Service, DTAC and TrueMove will take part. The watchdog is expected to call the bid in October.
DTAC has yet to finalise how much bandwidth it will pitch for in the auction.
Boonchai believes that telecom services will be better in the second half of the year, thanks to the continued expansion of all operators’ Wi-Fi and telephone networks and continued offerings of new applications and content.
DTAC, which has more than 23 million mobile-phone subscribers, plans to add 3,000 base stations nationwide for its third-generation service on 850MHz to the present count of more than 2,200 bases. It has also launched Wi-Fi service in major shopping malls in Bangkok late in the first quarter.
He added that DTAC had no plan to explore the broadcasting business, as it was still solely focused on telecom services.
Telecom holding firm InTouch, formerly known as Shin Corp, recently announced its interest in exploring opportunities in the terrestrial digital TV business. It is waiting to see how the NBTC develops regulations in this broadcast sector.
