NBTC board favours two spectrum auctions on Nov 11
The board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday approved in principle its telecom committee's plan to auction all four licences of the 1,800- and 900-megahertz spectra on November 11, which are expected to bring in up-fr
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said after the board meeting yesterday that the 1,800MHz licences would be auctioned in the morning of November 11 and the 900MHz licences in the afternoon.
There will be two 900MHz licences up for bid, each offering 10MHz of bandwidth. The minimum bid for this licence is Bt11.26 billion.
However, TOT this week informed the NBTC that it wanted to keep 10MHz of this band for its own use after the 900MHz concession it granted to Advanced Info Service (AIS) ends in September.
As things currently stand, there will be two licences on the 1,800MHz spectrum up for grabs, each for 12.5MHz of bandwidth. The minimum bid is Bt11.6 billion per licence.
CAT Telecom is in the process of transferring an idle 5MHz of bandwidth on 1,800MHz, currently held by Total Access Communication (DTAC), to the NBTC for auction. If the state agency successfully transfers this bandwidth, the NBTC will have 30MHz of 1,800MHz for auction, up from the present 25MHz. It will divide the total bandwidth into two licences, each with 15MHz bandwidth. The minimum bid will be Bt13.92 billion per licence.
The NBTC board will inform the Information and Communications Technology Ministry that CAT should hand over the 5MHz without any conditions by September 25, as prospective bidders will submit their proposals on September 30. If CAT fails to do so, the NBTC will go ahead and auction only 25MHz.
The ICT Ministry is in the process of amending the CAT concession granted to DTAC to facilitate this spectrum handover.
Takorn believes that there will be fierce competition in the auctions and the number of bidders will exceed the number of the available licences. According to the Frequency Allocation Law, NBTC will transfer all auction up-front fees to the state.
He said the new telecom licences would put Bt169 billion into the economy next year before surging to Bt270 billion in 2017 as a result of investments in cellular transmission networks and content.
The NBTC is scheduled to award the licences in December and expects that all licence winners will start to launch their services next February or March. Both spectra can be used to provide third- or fourth-generation wireless broadband service.
The NBTC will start an online public hearing tomorrow for the 1,800MHz draft auction rules and around the end of this month for the 900MHz draft auction rules.
AIS’s shares closed 1.65 per cent higher yesterday at Bt247. DTAC also closed higher at Bt84.75, edging up 0.89 per cent, while True ended down 0.86 per cent at Bt11.50.
