Two 4G licences to comprise 15MHz each

The minimum starting bid will be Bt15.912 billion per licence.

Information and Communications Technology Minister Uttama Savanayana said his ministry would send written confirmation to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) today that CAT Telecom’s 5MHz bandwidth on the 1,800MHz spectrum would be transferred for auction.

This resulted from an agreement between CAT and Total Access Communication (DTAC) to turn over the 5MHz to the NBTC without any conditions.

"The plan to return another 5MHz for the auction will help the state gain additional revenue of around Bt6 billion from the upcoming auction," Uttama said.

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC, said the ICT Ministry had already informed the commission of the transfer plan, and would send official written confirmation today.

The CAT board yesterday held an urgent meeting after DTAC advised the state telecom agency that it agreed to hand over 5MHz of an idle 25MHz of bandwidth on the 1,800MHz spectrum without any conditions.

Colonel Sanphachai Huvanan-dana, CAT’s acting chief executive officer, said the board approved the plan to transfer the 5MHz so the NBTC would have a total of 30MHz for the November 11 auction.

Transfer approved

Also yesterday, the public-private joint-venture panel approved the plan to transfer the 5MHz.

Telecom operators would prefer a licence comprising 15MHz rather than 12.5MHz because it would enable better 4G services for technical reasons.

Sanphachai said the transfer would not affect CAT’s interests because it had no plans to use this part of the spectrum to provide services.

According to the original plan, the NBTC was to auction two licences of 12.5MHz, bandwidth on the 1,800MHz that had been used by TrueMove and Digital Phone Co. However, around the middle of the year, CAT proposed handing over the idle 5MHz held by DTAC on the same spectrum for the auction, but it had to go through several complicated processes to make it a reality. So the NBTC set a deadline of September 25 for CAT to hand over this bandwidth.

The minimum bid for each 15MHz licence has been set at Bt15.912 billion. If there are only two qualified bidders, the NBTC will raise the minimum to Bt 19.890 billion.

Seven companies have picked up bid documents for the two 1,800MHz licences. They are Advanced Wireless Network, a unit of Advanced Info Service (AIS); two DTAC subsidiaries, DTAC TriNet and DTAC Broadband; TrueMove H Universal Communication and Hutchison Telecommunications (Thailand), both units of True Corp; and Jas Mobile Broadband, a subsidiary of Jasmine International.

Applications to take part in the auction can be submitted to the NBTC next Wednesday, September 30, with bank guarantees of Bt796 million per bidder.