TOT hands watchdog new five-year business plan to develop wireless broadband service
TOT RECENTLY submitted its new business plan to develop a 2.3 gigahertz wireless broadband service to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) for consideration, with the ambition goal of acquiring around 20 million mobile-phone subscribers via the service in the next five years.
TOT aims to utilise the spectrum to launch a 5G service in the future.
The NBTC’s telecom panel is expected to consider TOT’s new business plan soon.
According to the five-year plan, TOT will utilise its existing 60-megahertz bandwidth of the 2.3GHz for three services.
The first one is the fixed-wireless broadband Internet service in which securing 318,598 households has been targeted within five years. The service will be part of the government’s plan to launch broadband connectivity for villages nationwide next year.
The second one is the wireless broadband Internet service, which will utilise dongle devices and 539,739 users have been targeted within five years.
The last one is the wholesale of the 2.3GHz bandwidth to mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) partners to offer the mobile data service. It aims to acquire 19.2 million subscribers in five years via these MVNO partners.
The state agency aims to secure revenue of between Bt536 million and Bt6.978 billion a year from all these services.
TOT also plans to install 1,769 base stations of the 2.3GHz in the first year before expanding the number to 8,455 in the second year, 14,994 in the third year, 20,367 in the fourth year and 21,217 in the fifth year.
The NBTC has permitted TOT to use the 2.3GHz band until 2025.
The NBTC asked TOT to come up with the new business plan as its previous business plan lacked viability. The regulator has threatened to take bandwidth from TOT’s 2.3GHz spectrum to auction off, if TOT fails to come up with a more viable business plan.
Recently TOT’s board approved the state agency to hire Detecon Consulting as an adviser for seeking strategic partners for the planned 2.3GHz business. TOT plans to allow telecom equipment vendors and mobile phone operators to team up to propose becoming its strategic partners.
A TOT source said that Total Access Communication (DTAC) was interested in securing a partnership with TOT for the 2.3GHz business as DTAC failed to grab a licence from the NBTC’s recent auctions of the 1800MHz and 900MHz licences.
