NBTC gears up for next round of telecom auctions
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THE National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has resumed preparations for the next auctions of telecom spectrum licences, after the acknowledgement of the time frame by the Cabinet last Friday.
“We expect that there will be meaningful competition in these new auction rounds,” NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said yesterday.
Five companies have already announced they will join the bidding. They are Advanced Info Service, Total Access Communication (DTAC), True Corp, CAT Telecom, and Jasmine International.
There will be four licences up for auction, two of 12.5 megahertz each on the 1,800MHz spectrum and two of 10MHz each on the 900MHz spectrum.
The NBTC will hold the 1,800MHz auction in November, and take bids for the two 900MHz licences in December.
The NBTC has hired the International Telecommunication Union to re-evaluate the starting prices for the two spectra.
The current minimum bids were set at 70 per cent of the full spectrum values by the ITU last year. The starting price of 12.5MHz bandwidth of 1,800MHz is Bt11.6 billion, while the minimum for 10MHz of 900MHz is Bt11.26 billion.
Huge gains
At these current prices, the NBTC is estimated to gain between Bt45.7 billion and Bt65.3 billion from the auctions.
However, it could scrap the 70-per-cent evaluation and go for 100 per cent of the full value if there are at least as many bidders as available licences.
Takorn said the NBTC had a policy of remaining neutral on how the technology up for bid will be used, which means the winning bidders could utilise the bandwidth for second-, third- or fourth-generation cellular service.
The NBTC Office will propose the spectrum auction plan for the telecom committee’s consideration today. The commission has set a Bt100-million budget to prepare for the auctions.
The NBTC has decided to set a maximum of how much mobile-telecom bandwidth each operator can hold, whether they bid for the new licences late this year or not.
The cap is 45MHz for each operator. The cap will apply only to the spectra in use and those with a validity period of more than five years. It will not include ownership of bandwidth on the 2.3- and 2.6-gigahertz spectra.
“The NBTC expects to finalise the bandwidth-cap regulation, including public hearings, by July and apply it for this upcoming auction,” Takorn said.
The cap is aimed at ensuring that small operators can obtain bandwidth at the auction so as to create more competition for the three incumbent private players.
Takorn said the NBTC would set up a subcommittee to consider the plan to reclaim spectra, including DTAC’s bands on the 1,800MHz spectrum and state enterprises’ holdings on 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz.
He said DTAC had proposed returning its 50MHz bandwidth on 1,800MHz to NBTC for auctioning. The NBTC will discuss the details of this with CAT Telecom, which owns the DTAC concession, including how CAT would be compensated if it lets go of this spectrum for reallocation.
Takorn said the auctions of this bandwidth should take place next year.
The NBTC plans to set up a fund to pay compensation to the state agencies if they transfer bandwidth to the commission to be auctioned off.
