NBTC legal panel to study auction of DTAC's idle band

The legal panel is chaired by Bowornsak Uwanno, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee.
An NBTC source said that the panel study would focus on three issues – whether DTAC could hand over this idle spectrum to the NBTC without the need to ask for permission from its concession owner CAT Telecom; whether the licensing body could reclaim the idle spectrum; and whether the NBTC could auction this spectrum before DTAC’s
concession expires in September 2018?
The now-defunct Post and Telegraph Department assigned the 50MHz bandwidth of the 1,800MHz spectrum to CAT for the state agency to give to DTAC.
One condition is that DTAC has to use the first half of the bandwidth totalling 25MHz first before being able to use the other half. That has not happened yet.
DTAC wants to hand over this idle spectrum to the NBTC for auctioning off in the planned new spectrum-licence auction round this year to ensure that the bid winners have sufficient spectrum bandwidth to provide a decent service.
However, CAT has opposed the idea, as it wants to utilise this bandwidth.
An NBTC source said that the licensing body would like to clear up this issue before going ahead with the auction of the 1,800MHz spectrum of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co this year.
The NBTC is waiting for the National Council for Peace and Order to allow the auction of these spectrum bands totalling a combined 25MHz bandwidth.
Earlier, the NBTC’s legal advisory committee concluded that all expired spectra under state concession contracts should be returned to the NBTC, including the 900MHz of Advanced Info Service.
The AIS concession expires in September.
Last week, the NBTC telecom committee resolved to stand by its existing resolution that TOT has to hand over the 900MHz spectrum to the the watchdog for reallocation after the 900MHz concession expires.
This follows the TOT’s submission of a second request to the NBTC asking it to allow the state agency to use the 900MHz after the concession ends.