The telecom regulator has rejected the first draft of TOT Plc's business plan on the development of mobile broadband service on its existing 2300-megahertz spectrum, citing a lack of strategic planning for management and operations.
"TOT was given an additional 90 days to create a new draft business plan and resubmit it to the committee for reconsideration," said Prawit Leesathapornwongsa, a commissioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC).
"If TOT still fails to come up with a clear business plan in November, we might consider recalling some of its bandwidth on the 2300MHz spectra to reallocate it for other public uses," he said.
The telecom committee of the NBTC rejected the state telecom enterprise's mobile business plan.
Section 27 of the Frequency Allocation Act of 2010 stipulates that the NBTC has the right to recall spectrum from owners who do not use the bandwidth efficiently.
Mr Prawit said the first draft of TOT's business plan lacked several important practical elements: a mobile network deployment plan, a timeline for commercial launch of 3G/4G services and a clear roadmap for spectrum planning and usage.
In addition, the business plan might not benefit the public.
Mr Prawit said the NBTC's regulation governing the use of spectrum stipulated that licensees must launch their telecom services within two years after receiving the regulator's approval to use the spectrum.
TOT was approved to use 64MHz of bandwidth on the 2300MHz spectrum by the NBTC in October 2015, as the government wanted the state enterprise to generate a new revenue stream to survive in the post-concession era.
Mr Prawit said this could mean that if TOT fails to launch mobile commercial service by October 2017, the NBTC has the right to recall the spectrum and reallocate it for other public uses.
He said he disagreed with TOT's plan to use 60MHz of bandwidth on the 2300MHz spectrum for new mobile broadband services, calling the amount "excessive".
Mr Prawit said TOT took almost one year to draft a four-page mobile business plan and it was not well-organised and failed to describe all aspects of the business.
He said the first draft described only state enterprise plans to use the spectrum to provide mobile broadband service under a wholesale-resale model by renting mobile network capacity to private operators to provide services on TOT's network.
TOT wants to build network capacity to serve 100,000 subscribers in the first year of operation, increasing to 900,000 by the fifth year of operation, according to Mr Prawit's description of the draft business plan.