Auctions of 4G licences will go ahead: minister
INFORMATION and Communi-cations Technology Minister Uttama Savayana yesterday gave his reassurance that the auctions of 4G licences will take place next month as scheduled by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commis-sion (NBTC).
He made the remark at a seminar on the countdown to the auctions, co-hosted by Kaohoon newspaper, Spring Radio news channel, and SMEs PLUS magazine.
When asked by the press if he was certain the auctions would definitely take place, he said: “So far I believe there’ll be no lightning, only thunder” from those trying to stop the bids.
The NBTC will auction two licences on the 1,800-megahertz spectrum on November 11 and two 900MHz licences on November 12. It has reclaimed 900MHz from TOT for auction after the concession on that spectrum TOT awarded to Advanced Info Service expired last month.
TOT has claimed that it is entitled to continue holding this bandwidth to provide cellular service and has threatened to take legal action against the NBTC to defend this claim. The TOT board was to decide yesterday whether to take legal action against the NBTC on the issue.
Decision awaited
Yesterday more than 500 TOT employees gathered at the agency’s headquarters on Chaeng Wattana Road to await the board’s decision. The TOT’s labour union says it will take legal action against the NBTC’s 900MHz auction itself if the board declines to do so.
Federation of Thai Industries chairman Supant Mongkolsuthree said at the seminar that he hoped the auctions would take place. If not, it could hurt the economy. The auctions would spark new investment in key infrastructure and lead to more ICT services.
Barworn Papassratorn, assistant professor at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Thonburi, said a delay in the auction would affect the Thai economy, which was forecast by the government to expand by 4 per cent next year.
Sutham Yooonaitham, dean of the law faculty of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the auctions would increase the availability of broadband service. He added that the NBTC should design the telecom market in a way that promoted the emergence of newcomers.
