Initial valuation for 2.1GHz spectrum submitted
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's working group on the reserve price for the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum yesterday submitted its initial spectrum-price valuation in the range of Bt6.23 billion to Bt13.29 billion to the watchdog's re
An NBTC source said the reserve price for the spectrum auction was expected to be finalised at 60-80 per cent of this initial price range, or Bt4 billion to Bt5 billion per spectrum slot of 5 megahertz bandwidth.
The working group also proposed various models for calculating the reserve price of a 5MHz slot, based on this initial range.
Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the NBTC telecom committee, once said the reserve price should not be too high, but set between Bt4 billion to Bt5 billion per slot, given that soon the watchdog will also have other spectra available for future auctions, such as the 1,800MHz spectrum. This is unlike the experience of its predecessor, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which had only the 2.1GHz spectrum ready to be put to auction.
The reserve price committee will submit the working group’s initial price range for consideration of the 2.1GHz management subcommittee today, which will forward it to the telecom committee tomorrow for finalisation. Then it will submit the final reserve price to the NBTC board next Wednesday on June 27.
For the NTC’s aborted auction planned for November 2010, the reserve price of the 2.1GHz spectrum was set at Bt12.8 billion per 15MHz bandwidth.
Telecom industrialists said that if the NBTC reserve price were lower than that of the NTC, the watchdog would risk facing criticism.
The NBTC’s 2.1GHz subcommittee recently proposed to the telecom committee to auction nine slots of the spectrum, each containing 5MHz bandwidth. It is waiting for the telecom committee’s approval. The watchdog intends to auction the 2.1GHz spectrum in October.
The NBTC working group on the reserve price comprises a group of lecturers from Chulalongkorn University’s economics faculty. Its study on the initial price of the 2.1GHz spectrum is based on the nine slots of the spectrum to be available in the auction, a total 2.1GHz spectrum of 45MHz bandwidth, licence period of 15 years, the other spectra to be available for future auctions, and technology change.
It also includes economic factors such as population density and the number of mobile-phone users.
