Final value of 1,800MHz spectrum likely to be Bt663 million

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) had paid the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to study the value last year as part of the plan to auction the spectrum in the middle of last year.

However, in the middle of last year the military government ordered the NBTC to put off the plan for one year. At that time the ITU study suggested that the 1,800MHz value was Bt663 million per megahertz, based on the licence term of 19 years and the total of 25MHz to be put on the block.

Later the NBTC’s working group preparing the 1,800MHz licence auction asked the ITU to study the spectrum value again and the union proposed a value close to Bt663 million.

The working group then asked the ITU to revise its study, as it took the view that the value should not be too close to the previously proposed value of Bt663 million after one year had passed.

However, the source from the working group believes that the final value of 1,800MHz is unlikely to be far from Bt663 million per megahertz.

Based on the original Bt663-million estimate proposed by the ITU, the NBTC’s telecom committee last year finalised the total spectrum value at Bt16.57 billion for a pair of 12.5MHz bands – one for uplinking and one for downlinking – before discounting it 30 per cent to become the starting price of Bt11.6 billion per licence.

It had planned to put two licences, each with 12.5MHz, up for bid.

The working group is expected to finalise the spectrum value soon and propose it to the NBTC by July 14.

The NBTC is expected to auction at the end of the year 30MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum, instead of 25MHz as originally planned, because CAT Telecom has agreed to return 5MHz on that spectrum currently held by Total Access Communication (DTAC) to the commission for the auction.