Pressure on 3G winners to charge low fee

Public pressure mounted yesterday on the telecom operators who have won 3G licences "cheaply" to repay consumers by providing low-priced services, and for the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to ensure that the unofficial bid winners do not betray the constitutional concept that everyone "owns" - and thus should benefit from - telecom signals.

Almost every newspaper on Tuesday’s auction ran a story with a headline decrying suspected “collusion” that allowed the licences to be “given away” cheaply. There was also a big uproar on social media among those who don’t believe that the “cheap” licences would lead to low service charges, as some have claimed. Even one of the commissioners, former media activist Supinya Klangnarong, called on the public to “keep on fighting” for low fees, saying, “Thai people never get anything by simply asking [politely] for it.”
Enraged social media posters called for the formation of watchdogs to pressure the three bidders to be fair to customers.
The criticism stemmed from the fact that the “same old” big players in the telecom industry won the bidding, and that the competition between them up to now had not benefited consumers as much as it should have. That the NBTC set the median prices “too low” was seen by critics – most notably the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) – as a double jeopardy. First, according to the critics, the state lost out, and secondly, consumers remain at the mercy of the same operators controlling the market.
According to Supinya, the NBTC, which came into existence to achieve the constitutional goal of liberalising the telecom industry in every Thai’s best interest, faces the urgent task of setting a ceiling on 3G service fees and ensuring that consumers get equal 3G service access. “Before the auction, people had mixed views. Some wanted to see the auction aborted, while others wanted to see it proceed further. Now that the auction is finished, the NBTC has to seek ways to ensure that the consumers will get quality service and reasonable service fees,” she said.
NBTC commissioner Prawit Lee-satapornwongsa, one of the five members of the NBTC telecom committee, said he would not vote to approve the auction’s outcome at the committee’s next meeting, due to the lack of genuine competition in the auction. He said the topmost priority of the NBTC now is to guarantee that the consumers would enjoy the best possible service quality and reasonable service fees.
The telecom committee will hold a special meeting today to approve the auction outcome. If the committee approves the result, activist Suriyasai Katasila will today approach the Central Administrative Court against the bid outcome, citing possible collusion.
Prawit and Supinya were among the three NBTC board members (there are 11 in all) who declined to vote to approve the final revised draft of the 2.1-gigahertz (GHz) spectrum licensing terms and conditions in August. Supinya and Prawit voted against the terms out of concern that there could only be three bidders going for a combined available 45megahertz (MHz) of bandwidth.
Thailand’s first 2.1GHz spectrum auction on Tuesday turned out to be a less than fiercely competitive affair, with the three highest bidders paying a combined Bt41.625 billion.
The three bidders were Advanced Info Service’s Advanced Wireless Network; DTAC Network of Total Access Communication; and True Corp’s Real Future.
TDRI president Somkiat Tangkit-vanich on Tuesday slammed the auction as costly for the state coffers and for taxpayers.
He said the outcome was what he had expected: he cited a combined price for the nine slots totalling Bt41.650 billion, only slightly higher than the combined reserve price of Bt40.5 billion.
NBTC telecom committee chairman Settapong Malisuwan said the commission is ready to deal with possible legal suits against the outcome.