True affirms to SET it’s skipping licence auction
TRUE CORP informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday of its decision to abstain from a National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission auction in August of telecom spectrum licences in the 1800MHz frequency band.
In a separate statement issued the same day, Kittinut Tikawan, True’s co-president in charge of commercial operations, said the company considered the move carefully before making the decision based on optimal benefit to customers and investors.
He insisted the company would lose no business opportunities by shunning the auction.
True announced in May it would not take part in the bidding, given that its existing 55MHz spectrum bandwidth was enough to maintain its comparative advantage in the long run.
Advanced Info Service (AIS) and Total Access Communication (DTAC) have yet to declare whether they would participate in the auction.
Bids must be submitted by June 15 and a pre-qualification process will extend from June 16 to July 31.
The 1800MHz, which the NBTC will put in auction, currently belongs to CAT Telecom. CAT has granted the 1800MHz and 850MHz bands to DTAC to provide a mobile phone service under its concession, which will expire on September 15 this year.
DTAC and CAT yesterday jointly presented a subscriber protection plan to the NBTC for approval as DTAC approaches expiration of its concession. Both confirmed the best interest of both the customers and the public would be upheld by providing them with continuous service for the duration of the so-called remedy period, in compliance with the NBTC requirements.
The remedy period is the time after the concession expires but the NBTC permits the operator to continue to provide the service on an interim basis to prevent a service disruption until the spectrum under such concession is reallocated to a bid winner.
DTAC chief executive officer Lars Norling said that currently, there are still a large number of active subscribers on 800 MHz and 1800 MHz, whose interests must be protected.
CAT president Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana said that he is confident that the NBTC will approve the proposed plan in favor of the subscribers.
“DTAC along with CAT want to maintain service quality in accordance with relevant NBTC measures and announcements. While we are stepping up efforts to drive the migration of remaining 2G subscribers by giving them good offers to upgrade them to 3G/4G so that they enjoy much higher speed mobile internet, ” continued Norling.
