A joint committee has been set up by the Information and Communication Technology Ministry and the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to address conflicts and thorny issues in the Thai telecom industry.
Chaired by the ICT permanent secretary and the NBTC secretary, the committee has been given 90 days to seek resolutions on important issues.
ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap said he fully supports the NBTC's schedule for a third-generation (3G) licensing auction in mid-October.
Under the 3G auction plan, the NBTC plans to offer nine slots on the 2.1-gigahertz spectrum, each containing five megahertz of bandwidth.
The event will feature simultaneous ascending-bid auctions.
Each participant can obtain maximum bandwidth of 15 MHz.
The reserve price for a 5-MHz block of spectrum is 4.5 billion baht.
Bidders will have to deposit 1.35 billion baht as a minimum guarantee before joining the auction.
After signing a memorandum of understanding a few months ago, Gp Capt Anudith yesterday met the NBTC board to strengthen collaboration on regulations and operations.
He said about 10 agenda items must be urgently resolved including the spectrum issues after mobile concessions expire.
Under the NBTC's master plan governing spectrum management, all state telecom agencies have to transfer spectrum to the agency for reallocation after their concessions expire.
But both TOT and CAT want to retain their rights to the concessions.
Gp Capt Anudith said switching the country's analogue TV broadcasting to a digital platform also requires discussion as well as proposals for free public Wi-Fi, development of the main telecom infrastructure for state agencies and prevention and suppression of cybercrime via telecom and broadcasting systems.