900MHz auction set to be major windfall for govt
THE combined price of the two 900MHz licences being auctioned surged to Bt84.010 billion as of 8.20pm yesterday, exceeding the Bt80.778 billion combined price of two 1800MHz licences auctioned last month.
This means the state coffers will gain a total of more than Bt164 billion from auctioning the two 900MHz licences this week and the two 1800MHz licences last month.
As of 8.20pm, auction of the 900MHz licences was still on after having begun at 9am on Tuesday.
At round 88, the price of the first 900MHz licence block was Bt41.200 billion, while that of the second one was Bt42.810 billion. The starting price of both blocks was Bt12.864 billion.
The four bidders were Advanced Wireless Network of Advanced Info Service (AIS), DTAC TriNet of Total Access Communication (DTAC), True Move H Universal Commu-nication of True Corp, and Jas Mobile Broadband of Jasmine International. A telecom analyst believes that the most likely scenario is AIS and DTAC will each win one block of the spectrum, given their strong balance sheets.
The analyst assumed a final price of Bt40 billion per block and said every Bt10 billion additional price that AIS and DTAC pay for this licence could reduce their 2016 and 2017 earnings by approximately 2 per cent for AIS and 10 per cent for DTAC.
The less likely scenario is of AIS and True winning the auction. Since the 900MHz licence is crucial for DTAC, True might try to obtain the spectrum to weaken DTAC’s position. If DTAC loses out, it will have to continue using its existing 1800MHz and 850MHz under the concession, besides its 2.1GHz under NBTC licence, to serve customers. This could result in a sharp rise in its regulatory fee and depreciation expenses.
AIS’ share price dropped 5.58 per cent yesterday to close at Bt203, DTAC fell 7.14 per cent to close at Bt45.50, True dipped 3.18 per cent to close at Bt7.60, Jas dropped 1.39 per cent to close at Bt4.98.
