CAT seeks state council advice

CAT chief executive officer Kitisak Sriprasert said yesterday that the state agency wants to keep the spectrum for at least 10 years after the concessions of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co end.
He believes it is legally possible for CAT to do so as part of its plan to become a full cellular network provider.
Under the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s spectrum management master plan, all state agencies have to hand over their concessioned spectra to the NBTC for reallocation once their concessions end.
Both TOT and CAT, which are fighting to keep their concessioned spectra, have consulted the NBTC, with the watchdog subsequently assigning its legal subcommittee to examine the possibility of their both being permitted to retain them.
Kitisak said that, if need be, CAT would be willing to pay the NBTC compensation for the opportunity cost of being unable to reallocate the 1,800MHz spectrum to other parties. Earlier, an NBTC source said the watchdog might impose such a cost on CAT and TOT if it failed to reclaim their concessioned spectra for reallocation.
Kitisak said the NBTC should give CAT a chance to utilise the concessioned spectrum first, to see whether it could maximise its use. If CAT failed to do so, it would be willing to pay such an opportunity cost or hand the spectrum over to the NBTC.
Whether CAT can retain the spectrum should be made clear before the NBTC proceeds with the auction of the 3G-2.1GHz spectrum in October, he added.
TOT owns the 900MHz spectrum operated by Advanced Info Service, whose concession expires in 2015.
Kitisak and TOT chairman Panthep Chamrasromran said both state agencies would not take the NBTC to court if in the end they had to pass the concessioned spectra back to the watchdog for reallocation.
Meanwhile, the CAT board will consider at the end of the month the state agency’s request for a budget of Bt1.298 billion, required mainly for further developing its own My brand 3G-850MHz service.
Bt33 million would be for the mobile-phone number fee to be paid to the NBTC, Bt402 million for network interconnection fees, Bt150 million for network roaming fees, and more than Bt540 million for handset procurement.
The remaining Bt80 million would be for overseeing its existing Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000 1-x cellular service.
However, the board will still refrain from considering the part of budget for network expansion and related costs concerning CAT’s wholesale of 3G-850MHz bandwidth capacity to Real Move, and the part concerning CAT’s 3G network-equipment leasing from BFKT (Thailand). Both Real Move and BFKT are part of True Corp group.
 Board deliberation of these matters is pending CAT’s submission for Cabinet consideration of the issue of its 3G-related budgetary spending.
CAT and True subsidiaries, Real Move and Real Future, signed deals last January to create a partnership to offer the 3G-850 MHz service. Under the deals, CAT has leased BFKT network equipment to generate 3G capacity, which it has already wholesaled to Real Move under the contracts. BFKT is a Real Future subsidiary.
itisak said CAT and True were focused on their planned joint revision of six parts of the 3G-850 MHz service-offering partnership contracts in order to make them in line with the frequency allocation law, as ordered by the NBTC’s telecom committee.
The talks have made a great deal of progress, he added.
CAT also wants to revise the condition in the 3G wholesale-resale contract with Real Move that obliges it to allocate 80 per cent of its 3G network capacity for Real Move use during the first three years after the service launch.
 CAT wants to allocate this capacity for other parties, as well.