New timetable for auctions considered
Some members of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) are weighing the idea of putting the 1,800-megahertz and 900MHz spectrum bands up for auction together, instead of auctioning off the 1,800MHz spectrum alone late next year
The source at the broadcasting and telecom regulator said some telecom committee members had discussed the idea in order to give the combined 18 million subscribers of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co (DPC) more time to migrate to different networks after the two cellular operators’ concessions expire on September 15.
They also believe that the telecom committee might not be able to put all jigsaws in place to enable it to auction the 1,800MHz spectrum bands of TrueMove and DPC as intended late next year.
TrueMove and DPC operate cellular services using 12.5MHz of bandwidth each on the 1,800MHz spectrum band granted to them by CAT Telecom. The 900MHz concession of Advanced Info Service (AIS) under TOT will end in 2015. Earlier the telecom panel intended to auction the 1,800MHz band in October, before delaying the move to late next year.
The telecom committee has already approved in principle a plan to assign a specific party to serve these subscribers for one year after the TrueMove-DPC concession expirations to prevent subscribers from facing service disruptions during the transition period.
However, some commissioners believe the one-year transition period may not be long enough for all subscribers to move to different networks, the source said. Therefore, after the first year, the transition period should extend to 2015, they believe. This would mean that in 2015, the telecom committee would put up for auction both the 900MHz and 1,800MHz spectrum bands.
When concessions end, private cellular concession holders have to return their spectra to the NBTC for reallocation by means of auction only.
The NBTC’s telecom committee late last month appointed members to a subcommittee tasked with drawing up a plan to auction the 1,800MHz spectrum.
It also approved the forming of two working panels, one to draw up measures to mitigate the effects of the concession expirations on TrueMove and Digital Phone Co (DPC) customers, and the other to define within the next three months who will be assigned to take care of their customers during the one-year transition period.
However, the subcommittee and working panels have yet to be formally set up.
DPC has also proposed to the NBTC that if DPC fails to migrate all of its approximately 90,000 customers to different networks after September, CAT should be permitted to serve its customers until all can migrate to other networks.
A CAT source said DPC also told CAT that it wants to continue using the latter’s network and 1,800MHz spectrum to provide roaming service to some AIS customers for another three years.
Both CAT and True Group are keen to provide services to TrueMove’s 17 million subscribers after TrueMove’s concession ends. Recently, CAT chief executive officer Kitisak Sriprasert said that if the NBTC assigns CAT to do this task, the state agency might outsource the job to True, given CAT’s lack of experience in serving massive customer numbers.
CAT estimates that 10 million TrueMove subscribers out of 17 million will fail to migrate to other networks after September.
