NBTC expected to grant 3G licences after December 18 if not blocked legally

December 18 is when the NBTC’s telecom committee is expected to finish determining interim maximum tariffs for both voice and data services for the three winners of last month’s spectrum auction – Advanced Wireless Network, DTAC Network, and Real Future. They will use the bandwidth slots to provide third-generation cellular service.
The Ombudsman petitioned the Central Administrative Court on Thursday to consider whether the spectrum auction on October 16 saw free and fair competition as required by the Constitution and the Frequency Allocation Law. It also sought an injunction to suspend granting of the licences. The court is expected to make a decision on the petition on Monday.
However, Takorn said the petition was directed at the NBTC office, of which he is in charge, not at the NBTC board.
“I don’t know what I will have to do if the court issues the injunction, as I am not the one who drew up the auction regulations. That was the NBTC’s telecom committee,” he said.
According to the rules established for the auction, the licences should be granted within 90 days after the telecom committee’s approval of its outcome. The committee issued that endorsement on October 18, so the licences should be granted by January 18.
In a related matter, Takorn said the telecom committee would impose temporary maximum tariffs for mobile data services, and not only for voice service, on the licences of the 3G bid winners.
His remark appeared to contradict what NBTC vice chairman Settapong Malisuwan told the media on Tuesday, that the telecom committee would set the interim tariff maximum only for voice service, as it did not yet have enough information to work out the data-service tariff. This prompted criticism by consumer groups, as 3G service is about data service as much as voice service.
Takorn denied that the plan to set interim tariffs for both types of service was a result of the telecom committee bowing to public pressure. He said the committee had made such a commitment to the auction winners on October 19 when it officially certified their successful bids.
The NBTC will call in the bid winners to discuss the issue on Tuesday. They will propose the appropriate rates to the commission on November 23 before the NBTC office submits the final rates for the telecom committee’s consideration on December 18.
The watchdog in parallel will work out permanent regulations on the |maximum 3G voice and data tariffs, which will apply only to the three bid winners. TOT and CAT Telecom will |also be called in to provide more information for the NBTC to develop the regulations.
Takorn said the NBTC office had allowed its fact-finding panel to extend the deadline for its probe into possible collusion among the three bid winners to November 25 from the original date of November 10.
In a separate matter, the NBTC |will transfer its 2010 regulatory-fee income of Bt1.658 billion to state coffers. The watchdog passes the fees to the state after covering expenses every year according to the Frequency Allocation Law.
But the Finance Ministry has yet to rule whether the NBTC can pass to the state half of the total final up-front fees of the spectrum auction right now or should keep the money until the legal challenges are settled.
The three bid winners have paid a combined Bt22.269 billion to the NBTC, representing half of the total up-front spectrum fee.