Thaicom offers alternative to satellites plan
SATELLITE OPERATOR Thaicom has proposed to the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society that it use the transponders of the operator’s licensed satellites for free and it will pay the annual concession fee to the ministry until the end of the satellites’ life span, said a ministry source.
These proposals were made as an alternative to the ministry’s original plan to bring the company’s two existing licensed satellites back into the concession regime, as part of its efforts to reform the satellite-service industry.
It also wants Thaicom to be responsible for the ministry’s costs for reserving the orbital slots for Thaicom’s future satellites.
Thaicom presented these proposals at last month’s meeting between the company and the ministry’s panel assigned with solving the industry’s problems related to Thaicom.
The panel will ask Thaicom to soon make a formal submission on these proposals for the ministry’s consideration. Then the ministry will submit its decision on this case to the Cabinet.
As part of the Thaicom proposals, it would allow the government to use one transponder of each of all its existing licensed satellites Thaicom 7 and 8, and also its future licensed satellites, free of charge until the end of their life spans.
Their average life span is 15 years. The average transponder lease fee is Bt300 million per transponder per year.
In addition, it proposed that for Thaicom 4 (iPSTAR) and the Thaicom 5 and 6 satellites, which operate under the ministry’s concession, it would continue to pay the annual concession fee from the end of the concession in 2021 until the end of their life spans.
The annual concession fee it offers to pay in this case is the same concession amounts it will pay to the ministry from this year until the end of the concession in 2021, which is 22.5 per cent of its gross revenue.
The concession for the Thaicom 4 and 5 satellites will end at the same time in 2021, while in theory their life span will end in 2021 or later. The concession of Thaicom 6 will end in 2021 but its life span will end eight years after that.
According to the ministry source, Thaicom also offered to help the government build up the state’s satellite system by capitalising on its long expertise.
“Thaicom wants the ministry to make the decision on its proposals as soon as possible as it wants to hurry to develop the Thaicom 9 broadband satellite, which will be positioned at 119.5 East slot,” the ministry source added. The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) and the ministry have overlapping roles in overseeing the satellite service industry.
Currently the ministry oversees the Thaicom 4, 5 and 6 satellites, while the NBTC licensed and oversees the Thaicom 7 and 8 satellites and future Thaicom satellites. But it is the ministry that coordinates with international bodies to secure orbital slots for Thaicom.
The NBTC annual licence fee costs Thaicom only 5 per cent of its gross revenue.
