1,800MHz spectrum auction expected in mid-2014
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The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is expected to auction the 1,800-megahertz spectrum in the middle of next year, ahead of the previously envisaged schedule of September.
The NBTC expects that True Move and Digital Phone (DPC), which own 25MHz of bandwidth in the 1,800MHz system, will be able to migrate all 17 million of their subscribers before the expiry of the one-year interim measure in September. This measure was agreed after their concessions with CAT Telecom expired.
“The auction may take place around June or July next year, and the awarding of licences by December,” Takorn Tantasit, secretary-general of the NBTC, said yesterday.
The watchdog’s office yesterday received progress reports from both True Move and DPC on their migration plans. True Move said some 14.7 million of its original 17 million subscribers were still in the system, and that it expected to move all of them within four months.
DPC reported that it had 36,000 subscribers left in the system, and that they were all expected to migrate by the end of this month.
The NBTC’s telecom committee had earlier floated the idea of auctioning both the 1,800MHz and 900MHz spectra at the same time, for providing wireless broadband service using third-generation and beyond-3G technologies.
The 900MHz spectrum is used by Advanced Info Service (AIS), whose concession under TOT expires in March 2015.
If the telecom panel decided to auction the 1,800MHz and 900MHz spectra together, there would be 20MHz of bandwidth from the 900MHz spectrum and a similar amount from the 1,800MHz spectrum in the auction.
Of the total 900MHz spectrum, 17.5MHz of bandwidth would be from AIS, while the remainder – unused bandwidth – would be from the NBTC.
While TrueMove and DPC each own 12.5MHz of bandwidth in the 1,800MHz spectrum, only 20MHz of their combined bandwidth would be technically appropriate for service provision if bundled together for auction.
The NBTC has hired the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to advise on the development of the plan to auction the 900MHz and 1,800MHz spectrum bands.
The ITU is expected to submit the results of the first phase of its study, on the objectives of the auction, possibly by February or March.
Current mobile giants AIS and True group are keen to take part in the next spectrum auction to secure more bandwidth for the operation of broadband wireless services.
Meanwhile, the NBTC reported yesterday that as of end-September there were 14,328 3G 2.1-gigahartz cell sites around the country.
Advanced Wireless Network (AWN), an AIS subsidiary, has installed 9,350 sites, DTAC TriNet Network (DTN) – part of Total Access Communication – has installed 4,659, and Real True group’s Real Move has just 319.
However, Chakkrit Urairat, deputy director for regulatory matters at True group, said its True Move H wireless service had 13,500 sites on 3G-850MHz, and planned to install another 2,289 sites by year-end, of which some 2,000 are 4G-LTE (fourth-generation long-term evolution) technology.
According to the NBTC, as of last Friday, AWN had 12 million users, DTN had 5 million subscribers and Real Move had 700,000 subscribers on 3G-2.1GHz services.
True Move H reported that it had some 7 million users of 3G-2.1GHz and 850MHz services.
