One legal hurdle for 900MHz auction cleared
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The legal doubts over whether the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission had the right to reclaim TOT’s 900MHz spectrum for Tuesday’s auction have been cleared away.
The Council of State has advised TOT that it was required to hand the spectrum over to the NBTC for reallocation, the commission’s secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said Monday.
The Information and Communications Technology Ministry forwarded the Council of State’s decision to the NBTC yesterday. The commission will call bids for two 900-megahertz licences today from four contenders.
TOT consulted the Council of State last month on whether the telecom agency was entitled to keep the 900MHz spectrum after the Advanced Info Service (AIS) concession ended. The council replied that the NBTC’s master plan obliged all state agencies to transfer their frequencies to the commission for reallocation once their concessions granted to private companies expired.
The council sent its opinion to the ICT Ministry last Wednesday.
TOT had granted a 900MHz concession to AIS. The NBTC reclaimed the spectrum after the concession expired on September 30 this year.
