True Corp denies rumour it wants 4G auction delayed
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TRUE Corp chief executive officer Suphachai Chearavanont has denied the rumour that his company wants to see the next round of spectrum licensing delayed so his company can prolong its advantage of holding a large quantity of telecom bandwidth. He said th
“We’re ready to take part in the bidding and we want to see it take place this year. It’s time for the country to go 4G right now,” he said, referring to fourth-generation wireless broadband.
A telecom analyst recently said Advanced Info Service, the largest cellular operator in terms of number of subscribers, might be adversely affected if the auction does not take place this year. Without additional bandwidth, AIS is expected to face a shortage that should affect its service quality by early 2016.
AIS, which has about 44.3 million subscribers, is one of the three private telecom operators with licences for the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum. It also has a concession on the 900-megahertz spectrum, but it will expire in September.
Suphachai believes there is ample room for the 4G service to grow. Globally, the cost of setting up a 4G network has continued falling, so this is the right time to invest in the technology in Thailand. He believes the cost of 4G network equipment and 4G-compatible mobile devices will drop sharply in the second half of this year. True was the first company in Thailand to launch 4G commercially, using the 2.1GHz spectrum, followed by Total Access Communication (DTAC). Of the 15MHz of bandwidth True holds on that spectrum, 10MHz is being used for 4G and the rest for 3G. It has also partnered CAT Telecom to resell 3G-850MHz service for CAT.
Currently, True has about 24 million mobile telecom subscribers. It aims to double its 1-million-strong 4G subscriber base this year. Its subsidiary TrueMove, whose concession expired in 2013, still has 3 million 2G subscribers in its network. Suphachai said that if there is nothing to prevent the NBTC from holding auctions for the 1,800MHz and 900MHz spectra, it should go ahead on these first. However, at least 20MHz of bandwidth would be needed to provide a smooth 4G service on those spectra.
“If we can obtain [bandwidth on] 900MHz and 1,800MHz, we’ll have to allocate part of it for the 2G service too. A massive number of people still use 2G, and we have yet to finish migrating all our existing 2G subscribers to other cellular networks of the True group.” Therefore, he said, the 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz spectra should also be reallocated for the auction.
However, two state enterprises, which currently hold these two spectra, should be compensated if they have to transfer them for reallocation. MCOT and the Public Relations Department hold 2.6GHz bands. Suphachai said there were ways to compensate them. For example, MCOT could be allowed to keep part of the 2.6GHz spectrum to provide 4G.
The ad hoc national digital economy committee last week instructed the NBTC to resume planning for an August auction of telecom spectrum licences.
