TOT execs may take master plan to court
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Doubts over agency's constitutional rights
Some TOT executives are threatening to mount a legal challenge to the frequency-allocation master plan for allegedly violating the agency’s rights under the Constitution, a source from the state enterprise said yesterday.
The executives plan to ask the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to clarify first the possible effect on TOT’s rights from the NBTC’s 2012-16 master plan.
The plan requires all state enterprises to return to the NBTC the radio, TV and telecom frequencies granted to their private concession holders when the concessions expire.
The regulator will then reallocate the frequencies.
If the watchdog fails to give the executives a satisfactory explanation, they will move ahead to take the master plan to court, according to the source.
These executives believe that the 900-megahertz spectrum that TOT granted to Advanced Info Service to provide cellular service should be returned to TOT when AIS’s concession ends in 2015, instead of being transferred to the NBTC.
TOT, which was allocated the spectrum by the now-defunct Frequency Allocation Panel, should have the right to keep this valuable spectrum until its NBTC licence expires in about 2025.
The NBTC is seriously worried about any legal challenges to its three master plans, covering telecom, broadcasting and spectrum management, as they are platforms to launch the telecom and broadcasting spectrum auctions.
Any such legal challenge could affect the telecom and broadcasting industries, especially the NBTC’s plan to award new telecom and broadcasting licences.
The watchdog, which aims to hold an auction of third-generation licences for the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum in October, has tried to plug possible legal loopholes to ensure the auction will take place.
No idea
TOT chairman Panthep Chamrasromran said he had no idea about the plan of the executives to challenge the commission’s spectrum master plan.
The NBTC has asked the state enterprises to report to it the numbers of the spectra in their possession, their utilisation status and their spectrum terms.
The NBTC has learned a valuable lesson from the failed 3G-spectrum licence auction of its predecessor, the National Telecommunications Commission, in September 2010.
At that time CAT Telecom petitioned the Central Administrative Court to suspend the auction over questions about the NTC’s licensing authority.
