NBTC panel gives nod to licence for Thaicom 8
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THE telecom committee of the national regulator Tuesday agreed by a vote of 4:1 in principle to grant a licence to Thaicom for the listed company's planned Thaicom 8 broadcasting satellite.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said the panel would officially grant the licence to Thaicom 8 after the Information and Communications Technology Ministry confirms that the ministry has the authority to file the satellite at the International Telecommunications Union, and has assigned such a right to Thaicom to launch another satellite in the 78.5-degrees East orbital slot.
“We need to confirm whether the filing process requires the Cabinet, the ICT minister or only the ICT Ministry permanent secretary to approve it. If it can be done at the ministry level, we can approve the licence for Thaicom 8 immediately,” he said.
Thaicom 8 will in fact operate under the same licence as that granted by the NBTC to the planned Thaicom 7 satellite in June, 2012, on the grounds that it is a satellite-network expansion project arising from the existing licence.
The Nation
