China Mobile eyes rise in Thai investment
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CHINA MOBILE, the foreign strategic partner now owning 18 per cent of True Corp, is interested in expanding its investment in Thailand, said Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
Executives of the giant China-based telecom operator, led by its chief executive officer Li Yue, and those of True – led by CEO Suphachai Chearavanont – paid a visit to the NBTC’s telecom committee yesterday.
True and China Mobile will officially sign their strategic partnership deal today.
An NBTC source said that during the meeting, China Mobile had asked the commission about the progress of the telecom spectrum reallocation plan, especially for the 700-megahertz and 2.6-gigahertz spectra.
Telecom panel chairman Settapong Malisuwan told China Mobile that the committee planned to reclaim the 700MHz spectrum from its current use in terrestrial digital-TV broadcasting, and the 2.6GHz spectrum from MCOT, said the source.
The reclaim plan will become clearer next year.
In July, the National Council for Peace and Order instructed the NBTC to put off the planned auctions of 1,800MHz and 900MHz telecom spectra by one year, to give time for the regulator to amend some clauses in the telecommunications law and provide room for TOT and CAT Telecom to seek ways to survive.
The NBTC had originally planned to hold the auctions of both spectra this year.
The telecom and broadcasting sectors contribute a combined 3 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, Takorn said.
The total value of the telecom market is expected to be about US$9.3 billion (Bt300 billion) this year, and to grow to $16.6 billion in the next two years, if the 1,800MHz and 900MHz auctions are held either in 2015 or 2016, according to the NBTC.
About 110 million mobile-phone numbers are in use in Thailand, of which some 65 million are for third-generation cellular, it added.
