ITU hired to value spectrums
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)'s broadcasting committee has hired a team from the International Telecom Union (ITU) to value the radio and TV broadcasting spectrum bands before the regulator awards broadcasting licences
NBTC vice chairman Natee Sukonrat said yesterday that the committee had also appointed a subcommittee to separately work on the same task. It has also hired teams from Thammasat University and Sukothai Thammatirat University to jointly work out appropriate content ratios, such as of educational and sport content, for the digital TV licences it plans to award.
All of these tasks have to be finished within this year, Natee said.
The NBTC’s plans to award both public and commercial terrestrial digital TV licences are on track. The broadcasting committee is expected to have the drafts of three classes of digital TV licences published in the Royal Gazette in September, after which interested firms will be able to apply for cable and satellite TV business licences. The watchdog plans to start granting commercial terrestrial digital TV licences early next year.
The three licence classes are for broadcasting facility providers, broadcasting service providers and broadcasting network providers. All three licences can be used to provide services ranging from |digital TV to cable and satellite |TV.
He added that the value of the broadcasting spectrum bands should not be high when compared to the telecom spectrum bands, given that the watchdog would take social and cultural factors into consideration when tallying the spectrum value.
The broadcasting committee is also drafting four regulations for its granting of terrestrial digital TV licences. They cover technical standards for digital TV broadcasting systems, set-top-box regulations, the use of the Ultra High Frequency (400-700MHz) spectrum range to provide digital TV service, and a plan to switch the country’s analogue TV system to digital.
