Jasmine plans to join telecom spectrum auction
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TELECOM holdings firm Jasmine International will participate in the next auction of spectrum licences, it announced yesterday.
Chief executive officer Pete Bodharamik said Jasmine planned to set up a joint venture with a foreign strategic partner to bid for a licence. Jasmine plans to hold around 25-40 per cent of the joint venture.
The ad hoc national digital economy committee last week instructed the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to resume planning for the auction of spectrum licences.
Pete said Jasmine was in talks with three possible foreign partners, including Japanese and Korean telecom operators, to set up the joint venture. He estimated that if Jasmine could clinch a licence, it would need to spend a total of about Bt50 billion on the bid itself and on setting up a wireless broadband service.
He added that some might say Jasmine is unwise to compete with the three strongest mobile-phone operators in the upcoming bid, but he is convinced there will be a better opportunity to obtain a licence from this auction than there was for the earlier auction of 3G licences.
