TDRI chief slams 3G bid as 'fake' and 'calculated'

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TDRI chief slams 3G bid as 'fake' and 'calculated'

Published: 22 Oct 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

The president of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) has slammed the government's "fake" auction for 3G mobile phone service licences, saying bidders got everything they wanted at an artificially low price.

Somkiat Tangkitvanich, TDRI president, alleged Sunday on the think-tank's website that the auction - organised by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) - was fraught with irregularities.

Advanced Info Service (AIS) bid 14.6 billion baht, while Total Access Communications (Dtac) and True Corp bid 13.5 billion baht to win their licences.

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william

Discussion 12 : 22 Oct 2012 at 08.5112
Further to my previous comment , it goes without saying that the Thai government is benefitting even though keeping the entry prices relatively low for new spectrum made available now to the three service providers , through increased revenue generated by the public's ability to purchase airtime at relatively low price . These plans are of necessity taxable , whether a monthly plan or prepaid and provide the government with a generous inflow of the latter.
I rest my case.
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bula
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Discussion 11 : 22 Oct 2012 at 08.4511
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I think the 'winners' are finding themselves paying a much higher price - cooked up criticisms. Somkiat singled out "AIS's decision to offer 1 billion baht more than DTAC and True for preferred bandwidths was suspicious" was in itself suspicious. Investor of TRUE (CP food) may find it paying too high for a near obsolete 3G and may also put financial pressure on them. Didn't a president of such an organization as the TDRI that NBTC is an independent agency formed under the Constitution? How is it than that it was "...the government's "fake" auction for 3G mobile phone service licences...." Or was it BP quoted him wrongly?
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ggh
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Discussion 10 : 22 Oct 2012 at 08.3810
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Hopefully the low sale price will be reflected in subscriber rates.
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william

Discussion 9 : 22 Oct 2012 at 08.369
My take on this issue is we must realize that Thailand provides very low cost mobil phone services compared to other developed countries . My average monthly bills were in the vicinity of $140 in the US . The same for Canada . Europe is even more costly . Here in Thailand my bills for the same services are never more than B 1000 monthly , usually far less .
So , the bottom line is that Thai people are indeed receiving great value for their mobil services at an extremely fair price.
Yes , maybe it is true that to some extent Thailand lags behind in development and deployment of faster networks...of note , Taiwan and S. Korea are already using 5 G bandwidth .
To my mind it's an appropriate tradeoff however.
So, why " rock the boat " as pundits may say..?
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commonman
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Discussion 8 : 22 Oct 2012 at 07.558
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Buying a 3G license is like buying a used car. The only reason there were buyers is because it may be the next millenium before 4G is authorized by the greed merchants.
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MEB1969
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Discussion 7 : 22 Oct 2012 at 07.487
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I agree with Discussion 1. When technology is five years older or more, one can not expect to pay the same price that it was when it was first introduced. Case in point, would you pay 20,000 baht or more for an older version I-phone? I seriously doubt it. If the stores tried to do sell older products at original prices they wouldn't sell anything. While the auction was more than likely a farce at taxpayers expense and it was as usual a behind the doors dodgy deal those who are screaming foul should be thankful they got 2.8 % profit. They should be arguing about why Thailand isn't pushing for 4G.
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oldairman
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Discussion 6 : 22 Oct 2012 at 07.476
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Did the president of the TDRI make any comments BEFORE the auction or was he fence sitting as usual.

Of course if the government REALLY wanted to make money then they could have scrapped the restrictive laws, opened the bidding worldwide and had sealed bids.
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rastas
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Discussion 5 : 22 Oct 2012 at 06.515
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Perhaps if the restrictive business ownership laws set by the Govt where eased, then maybe there would have been more bidders. Sealed bids as are standard practice in most developed countries, may have helped too. But as with all large projects here of any type, the deal is settled long before the bidding stage.
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bula
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Discussion 4 : 22 Oct 2012 at 06.024
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I thought NBTC is an independent agency formed under the constitution. I thought BP should know this better on this. How has it becomes a "government's "fake" auction for 3G mobile phone service licences......,"
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Renaissance
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Discussion 3 : 22 Oct 2012 at 05.583
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No doubt we will see more money being sent abroad after this auction.
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