1,800MHz bandwidth used by TrueMove and DPC must be returned for reallocation: NBTC legal panel

Settapong Malisuwan, telecom committee chairman of the NBTC, said yesterday that the legal panel had forwarded its conclusion to the commission’s office, which would present it for the telecom committee’s consideration soon.

State agency CAT Telecom wants to keep part of the 1,800MHz spectrum to serve customers of TrueMove and DPC after their concessions end this September. It has enlisted support from the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to urge the NBTC to allow it to keep part of the spectrum. 

The 2010 Frequency Allocation Act provides that telecom spectra be reallocated by means of auction only.

Settapong said the NBTC panel tasked with handling issues surrounding the expiry of the TrueMove-DPC concession would next month finalise the plan for taking care of the two companies’ customers post-expiry. The original deadline was for the panel to reach a decision by the end of this month.

TrueMove has 17 million customers and DPC 80,000.

He believes the plan for all five cellular operators to expand their capacity jointly for mobile-phone-number portability to an unlimited number per day, against the present daily maximum of 4,000 numbers by all operators, will help the rapid migration of TrueMove and DPC customers to different networks. Portability allows mobile-phone subscribers to keep their phone numbers when they move to a different network.

The NBTC has given the five operators a tentative date of April 20 to co-launch massive number portability to support the upcoming third-generation networks and the end of the TrueMove and DPC concessions. The telecom committee will reach a final decision on the plan next week.

The watchdog’s numbering panel has also approved the granting of a combined 26 million mobile-phone numbers to the three holders of its 3G licences for the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum – Advanced Wireless Network (AWN), DTAC Network (DTN) and Real Future. The telecom committee will consider signing off on this approval next week. 

AWN has requested 14 million numbers, while DTN has asked for 8 million and Real Future for 4 million.

Settapong said that this year the NBTC would focus on developing the regulations to auction off the 1,800MHz spectrum, which could be used to provide wireless broadband service, including 4G. 

CAT currently grants 12.5MHz of the spectrum’s bandwidth each to TrueMove and DPC for the provision of 2G service. The spectrum can accommodate 2G through to 4G.

However, exactly when the NBTC can auction the spectrum is dependent on when the two operators’ existing customers are completely migrated to different networks, he added.