Clearing up the static
- Published: 22 Oct 2012 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: Business
The sale of 2100-megahertz spectrum licences by the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has attracted a storm of controversy over the process and the pricing. Chiratas Nivatpumin and Komsan Tortermvasana tackle some of the questions behind the auction.
Was the auction fair?
Critics have lambasted the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) for setting the reserve price below fair value. Somkiat Tangkitvanich, the president of the Thailand Development Research Institute, said on the day of the auction that the state and taxpayers would lose over 16 billion baht from the results. The calculation is based on the difference between the reserve price and the valuation price of 6.44 billion baht previously proposed to the NBTC by a team of Chulalongkorn University economists.
This article is older than 60 days, which we reserve for our premium members only.You can subscribe to our premium member subscription, here.
