NBTC board gets panel report on 3G auction

However, the telecom sector still has to await the Central Administrative Court’s ruling on whether the auction involved free and fair competition as required by the Constitution. The Ombudsman petitioned the court on the matter last week.
The court will question the NBTC on the case today, after holding an inquiry session with the Ombudsman yesterday.
The NBTC yesterday also asked its members to vote on whether it should consult the Council of State to clarify the authority of its telecom and broadcasting committees in executing their power on behalf of the watchdog.
Eight commissioners voted that there was no need to consult with the state agency. Of the other three, Prawit Leesatapongwongsa and Supinya Klang-narong voted that the NBTC should do so, while Thawatchai Jittrapanun abstained.
The voting followed doubts by some members as to whether the outcome of the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum auction still needed to be endorsed by the NBTC’s board, or whether it was sufficient for it to be approved by only the telecom committee. The latter approved the outcome on October 18.
The NBTC’s legal unit had suggested consultation with the Council of State on the matter.
Takorn said the NBTC board had passed a clear resolution last December to define the roles of both committees, including their roles in issuing business licences and regulations.
NBTC chairman Thares Punsri, commissioner Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn and Takorn will meet the Central Administrative Court today in connection with the Ombudsman’s petition on whether there was free and fair competition in the auction.
The Ombudsman also sought an injunction temporarily to suspend the NBTC’s plan to grant licences to the three bid winners. However, Takorn said last week that the petition was directed at the NBTC office, and not at the commissioners.
The industry is anxiously waiting to see whether the NBTC’s granting of the 2.1GHz spectrum licences will be disrupted by any legal order. Under the auction terms, the agency has to grant the licences within 90 days of approving the bidding outcome.
Meanwhile, the NBTC panel investigating alleged collusion among the three bid winners – Advanced Wireless Network, Real Future, and DTAC Network – questioned the companies on Tuesday. Its preliminary findings are that there was no bidding collusion, said panel member Jitnara Navarat. Takorn said the committee must complete the investigation by November 25.
The committee will also invite 13 of the 16 licence applicants to explain why they had picked up the application forms, but not in the end submitted applications. The NBTC opened for application submission on September 28.
Four companies – the three bid winners and Tantawan Telecommunica-tion – submitted applications, but Tantawan’s application was rejected because of the absence of a crucial document.

LACK OF MEANINGFUL COMPETITION
Many parties consider that Thailand’s first spectrum auction lacked any meaningful competition among the three bidders, which paid a combined Bt41.625 billion – less than 3 per cent above the reserve price – for the nine prized spectrum slots after seven rounds of bidding.
The NBTC telecom committee continues to insist that it proceeded with the auction in strict accordance with the law and regulations.
However, it has acknowledged that it is giving higher priority to market competition in the post-auction era than to competition in the auction itself.
In a separate matter, Takorn said the NBTC office had allowed a panel probing the business operations of BFKT (Thailand) to extend the deadline to complete its scrutiny to November 20. It had been due to finalise the matter this week.
The investigation is focused on whether BFKT is running a network rental business without an NBTC licence. BFKT rents network equipment under the CAT Telecom-True Corp partnership for the provision of 3G service.