3G winners threaten to sue NBTC

Business > Telecommunications

Ombudsman asks court to halt licence issuance

Published: 9 Nov 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

Two major mobile operators are threatening to sue the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) if it fails to issue third-generation (3G) licences by mid-January.

The telecom watchdog earlier committed itself to granting the licences to the three bid winners within 90 days of the auction results for 45 megahertz of spectrum on the 2100-MHz band being certified.

The auction winners - subsidiaries of Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (Dtac) and True Move - paid half the bid price to the NBTC after it formally declared the winners on Oct 19.

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bluebottle
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Discussion 8 : 09 Nov 2012 at 13.348
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Not much chance of any G with this incompetent lot on charge.It is the people who should be suing the NBTC for squandering there money in the so called 3G auction not the phone companies.
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watchdog
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Discussion 7 : 09 Nov 2012 at 13.167
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This delay is ridiculous. I noticed that: "Mr Somprasong expressed doubt about the motives of several groups opposed to the auction. He said the NBTC had allowed public input about the auction on its website for months beforehand." Did you also notice that earlier in the article it mentions that "the TOT labour union" as one of the parties trying to delay issuance of the licenses. I also have my doubts about the motives of the groups opposed to the auction.
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bkposter
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Discussion 6 : 09 Nov 2012 at 10.376
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They did not bid very much for old 3G spectrum....who can blame them...they will wait to bid on the faster and newer speeds now. 3G is the wave of the past, not the wave of the future. Government and NBTC needs to get out of the way and let free enterprise work and they will bring us the best products as that is what it takes to compete. NBTC has been carping about "where is my cut?" for years already and the world has passed them by.
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pointoffew
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Discussion 5 : 09 Nov 2012 at 10.045
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The NBTC and other authorities should have been sued years ago. Why wait.
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john_l
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Discussion 4 : 09 Nov 2012 at 09.384
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All three of the telcos mentioned in this story provide totally crap service.

As I sit in Sukhumvit 22 under a massive transmission tower and daily watch an upload speed of 0.56kps and a download speed of 0.42kps from Dtac I wonder why the Thai government allows this blatant theft to happen on a daily basis. And it's not just Dtac or Sukhumvit 22. In the last three years I have never seen the 300kps that edge is supposed to deliver and that I pay for from any.

Until there are minimum quality service standards that must be adhered to and consumers get what they pay for AIS, Dtac (Telenor), and True should not be able to expand their net
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franklin
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Discussion 3 : 09 Nov 2012 at 08.123
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Why are these guys stuck on trying to get 3G at this late point in time? On November 1, Laos just moved up to 4G that is 100 times! faster than the existing ‘Edge’ 2G of Thailand. Thailand is good at selling the fancy new Samsungs and iPhones but offers no comparable quality service for their use. It’s like having a Ferrari and only being able to drive it down a dusty dirt road. Get it together and think about the customers.
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packman
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Discussion 2 : 09 Nov 2012 at 05.282
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Stadium not completed in time. G3 now out of date and still not available, grown ups acting like little kids. No wonder they call it Amazing Thailand. It truly is.
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cocoricco
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Discussion 1 : 09 Nov 2012 at 03.561
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Can we skip 3G and move on to 4G like the rest of the world.
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3G winners threaten to sue NBTC | Bangkok Post: business