TUC to get 1800MHz licence on Friday, will launch 4G service in mid-December
TRUE MOVE H Universal Communication (TUC) of True Corp plans to launch a 4G service on its newly acquired 1800MHz licence in the middle of this month, according to Thiti Nantapatsiri, True's group executive director.
TUC and Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) of Advanced Info Service were the two winners of licences on the 1,800-megahertz spectrum at an auction last month.
Yesterday TUC handed bank guarantees for the second and third instalments of its upfront licence fee to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commis-sion and will obtain the licence tomorrow. It paid the first instalment on November 25.
AWN paid the first instalment and placed bank guarantees for |the second and third instalments |at the same time on November 23 and got the licence on November 25.
The NBTC has said AWN plans to launch its fourth-generation service in the middle of this month.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the commission’s telecom committee yesterday approved granting the licence to TUC at 11am tomorrow. The licence will be valid from that day until September 15, 2035.
The NBTC will switch off TrueMove’s 2G-1800MHz service after midnight tonight.
After TrueMove’s concession ended in September 2013, the NBTC reclaimed its 1800MHz bandwidth to auction but allowed it to continue serving customers who failed to move to other networks, until the granting of 1800MHz licences.
Thiti said 30,000 subscribers remained active in TrueMove’s network. TUC is talking with CAT Telecom on leasing its 2G network to serve these customers.
Earlier the NBTC said there were more than a million 2G users roaming True Group’s 2G-1800MHz network.
The NBTC had wanted to switch off the 2G service on November 25, but TrueMove asked it to extend the date to allow it to continue serving customers until TUC obtained the licence.
TrueMove also asked the NBTC office yesterday to affirm that no party was affected during its continued provision of the 2G service as all revenue will be transferred to the state and the spectrum still belongs to the state.
Takorn said the telecom committee did not consider whether TrueMove was violating its order |by continuing serving 2G customers as the 2G service would be switched off as soon as TUC obtains the licence.
Takorn said that today, the NBTC would transfer the first-instalment payments by both AWN and TUC, totalling Bt40.29 billion, to the Finance Ministry.
