NBTC to set up subpanels to continue work of dissolved committees
THE National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) board will set up two subcommittees to continue the work of the committees that had been responsible for broadcasting and telecommunications matters before they were dissolved in a restructuring.
The move follows the new NBTC law coming into on June 23; this obliged the dissolution of the NBTC broadcasting and telecom panels.
The regulator needed to set up these two panels so that the work of the dissolved committees can be continued, but these subpanels have no power to make any approvals.
NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith said yesterday that the NBTC commissioners could continue to perform their tasks until their term ends on October 7, as allowed by the new NBTC law.
He added that the NBTC would also press ahead with plans to receive the 90MHz bandwidth of 2.6Ghz band from MCOT and reallocate the bandwidth by means of auction.
He said MCOT president Kematat Paladesh met him to inform him of the MCOT’s intention to hand over 90MHz out of 120MHz of the 2.6GHz bandwidth to the watchdog. MCOT will keep the rest for the development of the pay TV service.
The new NBTC law empowers the regulator to reclaim idled spectra for reallocation before the end of the term of the concessions of the spectrum holders. The NBTC will determine the ways to compensate these spectrum holders after reclaiming their spectra.
The NBTC law also obliges the appointment of seven commissioners to oversee both the telecoms and broadcasting industries.
The first NBTC law provided for 11 commissioners, of which five each regulated the broadcasting and telecoms sectors, aside from the chairman.
The seven commissioners required under the new law must have a background in fields covering radio broadcasting, TV broadcasting, telecoms, engineering, law, economics, and consumer protection.
In a separate matter, messaging app service provider Line Company (Thailand) yesterday clarified with the NBTC that it was not the company that would offer the Line Mobile service, but DTAC TriNet, a subsidiary of Total Access Communication (DTAC).
It added that DTAC TriNet purchased from it the right to use the name Line Mobile for the planned service. In addition, Line Mobile of DTAC TriNet has no relation with the existing Line Mobile service in Japan, noting that they have the same name only.
The massaging app service provider Line Corp has made available the Line Mobile service for the first time in Japan since last year.
The NBTC yesterday called a meeting with representatives of DTAC recently and Line Company (Thailand) yesterday to clarify if DTAC TriNet's planned Line Mobile service needs to seek an NBTC operational licence.
Takorn said yesterday that if the statements by both DTAC and Line were proven true, then it was not necessary for its licence holder DTAC TriNet to seek the licence to operate Line Mobile, given that Line Mobile was not a new mobile phone service operator.
