Spectrum rights of CAT, TOT up for decision
The Information and Communications Technology Ministry will set up a committee to determine which spectra belong to TOT and CAT Telecom and which ones they do not have rights to any more so as to prepare both state agencies for future spectrum-utilisation
ICT Minister Pornchai Rujiprapa said yesterday that the ministry would quickly clarify who has which rights to several spectra, including bands of the 1,800- and 800-megahertz spectra currently used by CAT and TOT’s bandwidth on 9MHz.
The 1,800MHz concessions granted by CAT to TrueMove and Digital Phone Co expired in September last year and the 900MHz concession granted by TOT to Advanced Info Service will expire next year. The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission had planned to auction them this year but the National Council for Peace and Order instructed the regulator to postpone the auction plan by one year.
Yesterday during Pornchai’s first visit to CAT, the agency insisted that the government should reaffirm the policy that CAT is entitled to 50MHz on the 1,800MHz spectrum, which it has granted to Total Access Communication for cellular service. DTAC uses only half of that bandwidth, and CAT wants to use the idled half to provide fourth-generation wireless broadband service. However, the DTAC concession will not expire until 2018. Pornchai wants CAT and TOT to work out a plan quickly on jointly running redundant businesses, including fibre-optic broadband Internet and international submarine cable operations.
He said the State Enterprise Policy Commission, or “superboard”, on Wednesday ordered him to set up a steering committee to supervise both state telecom enterprises to seek ways to merge some businesses within three months.
In the first eight months of this year, CAT reported Bt33.2 billion in revenue with a net loss of Bt167 million. CAT estimates that its revenue this year will reach Bt49.7 billion with net profit of Bt425 million. Last year it reported Bt76 billion in revenue and Bt11.2-billion profit, since it was the last year that it could earn revenue from its telecom concessions.
Both TOT and CAT started passing concession revenue to the state last December as obligated by the 2010 Frequency Allocation Act.
Pornchai also visited Thailand Post Co yesterday. He said his ministry would support Thailand Post becoming the state logistics agency.
In a separate matter, Pornchai said he planned to take over the unused Bt3.7 billion previously allocated for promoting the Wi-Fi network to serve the government’s school tablet project. He wants to use that money to set up an ICT network for state hospitals and schools nationwide instead. The ICT Ministry will implement this project in collaboration with the Public Health, Science and Technology, and Education ministries.
