Total Access Communication's (DTAC) subsidiary dtacTriNet picked up bid documents on Monday for the second-round auction for the 900-megahertz spectrum licences at the telecom regulator's headquarter.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is allowing interested companies to pick up the bid documents from Monday to Oct 8.
Korkij Danchaivichit, deputy secretary-general of NBTC, said prospective bidders must submit bid documents to the regulator by Oct 9, with a bid guarantee worth 1.9 billion baht, according to conditions published in the Royal Gazette last week.
The NBTC plans to hold the auction on Oct 20.
The 900MHz licence contains 5MHz of bandwidth or 5×2MHz for upload and download. The licence's starting bid will be 37.9 billion baht, based on the winning prices of the 900MHz licences in the 2015 auction.
Last week, the NBTC board approved the amended conditions and timeline for the second-round auction of 900MHz licences.
The NBTC amended two critical conditions from the original draft of the 900MHz auction to create more attractive conditions for prospective bidders, especially DTAC.
The regulator removed the original conditions that made licence winners solely responsible for any and all interference in upcoming railway projects, both on the 850- and 900MHz spectra.
The NBTC said it added the details to the auction conditions to make it clear if DTAC joins the bid, it can operate the concession spectrum on 850MHz for another 24 months while transitioning onto the 900MHz network because of hardware upgrades across several thousands of sites nationwide.
However, the NBTC board is maintaining the original payment terms of the 900MHz licence for four years -- 4.02 billion within 90 days after the auction, 2 billion in the second year, another 2 billion in the third year and the remaining amount of the winning price in the fourth year.
DTAC operates mobile service on 1800- and 850MHz under a concession from CAT Telecom that expired on Sept 15. The NBTC planned first-round auction of the 900MHz licence was aborted because no one bid.