Bangkok Post : TOT wants to expand 3G by April

COMMUNICATIONS

TOT Plc says it could call bids from suppliers for the second phase of its nationwide 3G project worth 20 billion baht in April, and would become the first local operator to offer the high-speed mobile broadband services on the 2.1Ghz bandwidth.

Vichien Narkseenuan, a senior executive vice-president of the state telecom enterprise, said TOT had received approval to go ahead with its nationwide project, even as prospects for an auction to award four 3G licences look increasingly cloudy.

The second phase of the TOT project calls for 3,800 base stations to be constructed, he said. Funding would come partly from project loans.

TOT has already sent draft terms of reference for the second phase to the Office of the Attorney General and expects to have an answer in 10 days. After that, it would need at least 90 days to invite bidders and screen their technical qualifications before calling the auction.

Mr Vichien said TOT had fixed the retail pricing of 3G services for its own customers. Its contracted operators would charge similar rates to their customers in order to prevent a price war.

TOT intends to offer the services through five so-called mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) but to date only one of them, Samart I-Mobile, has a licence from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

The other four prospective operators are Loxley Plc, 365 Communication, IEC International and M Consultant Corporation.

TOT aims to launch the service commercially in Bangkok on Dec 3. Prices of the voice and data services could be 10 times lower than those of similar services offered on existing 2G mobile networks.

TOT has upgraded 533 base stations in Bangkok to 3G with a capacity to serve 500,000 numbers.

Ranongruk Suwunchwee, the Information and Communications Technology minister, said TOT's 3G project had nothing to do with the NTC's troubled licence auction process, and that economic ministers had not asked TOT to delay the project.

The prime minister could order a delay, she said, but so far he has merely asked the NTC to revise its auction rules that bar state telecoms from bidding, and also to settle existing 2G concession conversions.