NBTC telecom committee to make decision today on issuing 3G licences
The telecom committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission will convene today to decide whether to proceed with the granting of licences to the three companies that won slots on the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum during an auction on Oct
The companies in question are Advanced Wireless Network of Advanced Info Service, DTAC Network of Total Access Communication, and Real Future of True Corp.
Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the telecom committee, said this week that his panel would press ahead and grant the licences this month.
The bandwidth slots are to be used to provide third-generation cellular service. An NBTC source said the three firms had yet to finalise 3G service tariffs for the telecom committee’s consideration. The watchdog wants those tariffs to be as low as possible.
The committee yesterday acknowledged Monday’s dismissal by the Central Administrative Court of a petition by the Ombudsman against the October auction. It also approved the conclusion of its own subcommittee tasked to probe possible collusion among the three winning bidders for slots on the 2.1GHz spectrum. That sub-panel found no evidence of such collusion.
The telecom committee also acknowledged the result of a preliminary probe by the Department of Special Investigation, which has not found any evidence that the regulations governing last month’s 3G bandwidth auction, or the auction itself, circumvented anti-bid-rigging laws.
AIS’ share price closed at Bt216 yesterday, down 1.37 per cent from the previous day, while that of DTAC closed unchanged at Bt87.25. True’s share price closed at Bt5.10, up 0.99 per cent.
