Uttama to make decision this week on CAT request to keep bandwidth
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THE Information and Communications Technology Ministry will decide this week if CAT Telecom can keep the idle 20MHz of the 1800MHz spectrum and return 5MHz of the same spectrum to the national broadcasting and telecom regulator for auction.
ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said that when the decision is reached, he would forward it for Cabinet consideration within this month.
Uttama discussed the details with CAT last week and considered its request to keep 20MHz out of idle 25MHz of 1800MHz, which is being held by its concession holder Total Access Communication (DTAC).
CAT wants to keep the idle bandwidth until 2025, instead of 2018 when DTAC concession expires. Uttama also discussed with CAT the state agency's plan to hand over the remaining idle 5MHz of 1800MHz to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) for auction on November 11.
Uttama said he needs time to decide if it is possible to approve CAT's requests and consider the legal ramifications. The NBTC originally planned to call the bid of combined 25MHz of 1800MHz of True Move and Digital Phone Co on November 11, featuring two licences, each with 12.5MHz.
If CAT can hand over DTAC’s 5MHz of 1800MHz to the NBTC for auction, the watchdog will have a total of 30MHz of the spectrum for auction, featuring two licences with 15MHz each.
The NBTC set September 25 as the deadline for CAT to hand over this 5MHz bandwidth. If CAT fails to do so, the NBTC will resume the original auction plan by auctioning only 25MHz bandwidth of 1800MHz.
CAT granted 50MHz of 1800MHz to DTAC, which currently uses only half of the bandwidth.
Last week, Uttama also discussed with TOT the state agency’s desire to keep the 900MHz spectrum after the 900MHz concession it granted to Advanced Info Service expires at the end of this month.
Uttama said it was not necessary for |the ministry to submit its conclusions |on the cases of CAT and TOT to the |Cabinet at the same time, as the CAT case has to be resolved before the NBTC deadline of 5MHz spectrum handover on September 25.
