Split spectrum auction into three if 30MHz is available: Suphachai
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission should split the 1800-megahertz spectrum into three 10MHz bands if it decides to auction licences for a total 30MHz bandwidth, Suphachai Chearavanont, chief executive officer of True Corp, said l
Putting three licences up for grabs would help maintain competition among major telecom operators after the 1800MHz auction.
The licensing body should not jeopardise the chances of any of the prospective bidders, said Suphachai, who is also president of the Telecommunications Association of Thailand.
The NBTC is likely to auction 30MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum in November, instead of the 25MHz originally planned, after CAT Telecom offered to return 5MHz on that spectrum held by Total Access Communication (DTAC) to the NBTC for the auction.
However, the auction of 30MHz depends on whether CAT can completely transfer the bandwidth to the NBTC before the NBTC finalises the auction plan, which will be soon.
If it can’t, the watchdog will have to go ahead with the original auction plan, which called for the NBTC to put 25MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum up for tender in November, of which 12.5MHz was reclaimed from TrueMove and the other half from Digital Phone Co.
DTAC has urged the NBTC to divide the 30MHz bandwidth into three licences, each with 10MHz.
But Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC, said that if the watchdog does as requested, it would risk drawing public criticism for failing to promote meaningful bidding competition.
The Telecom Committee will today consider the draft of the 1800MHz auction regulations, including one to cap the spectrum each of the telecom operators can own at 60MHz.
Suphachai said a telecom operator should have at least 20MHz to ensure smooth 4G wireless broadband service.
He wants to see the 1800MHz licence auction held as soon as possible, as the 4G service is a key building block for the government’s establishment of the digital economy.
The association’s executive committee appointed Suphachai as president last month, replacing Vichai Bencharongkul, the executive chairman of broadband service provider United Information Highway.
The 30-member executive committee chooses its president from its membership. This selection saw three members contending for the post – Suphachai, former senator Anan Worathitipong and Kajornsak Singhaseni, a senior executive vice president of CAT. Kajornsak later withdrew from the race.
The vote was 16 for Suphachai and 13 for Anan, with one member absent. Suphachai’s term runs to 2017.
Suphachai said he could play a role in contributing to the country’s execution of the digital economy strategy and the national ICT infrastructure plan.
The country needs to further develop ICT infrastructure, human resources and strategies for cloud computing, Internet data centres and international gateways, he said.
