The national telecom regulator has finally decided to auction 25 megahertz of bandwidth on the 1800-MHz spectrum for the country's first fourth-generation (4G) sale in November.
The telecom committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) approved its draft auction designs for 1800-MHz band yesterday, said Col Settapong Malisuwan, committee chairman.
However, he said the NBTC would allow both CAT Telecom and DTAC to complete their proposal this week to return the unused five MHz on the 1800-MHz spectrum to the regulator without any conditions attached, which would be before the public hearing on the details of the 4G auction design on July 18.
If the portion is returned the auction could be for 30 MHz of bandwidth.
"We will no longer wait for a commitment from CAT Telecom and DTAC on their proposal if both parties cannot complete their bandwidth transfer within this week," said Col Settapong.
As originally planned, the NBTC will auction two licences on the 1800-MHz spectrum in November, with each licence for 12.5 MHz.
The 25 MHz of bandwidth is from True Move and Digital Phone Co, whose concessions with CAT Telecom expired in September 2013.
Col Settapong said it was important for the NBTC to keep the 4G auctions on schedule for this year.
The committee will submit the approved draft auction designs to the NBTC's board on July 14. A public hearing will be aired on July 18 before they are published in the Royal Gazette by October.
He said the committee did not add the five MHz of bandwidth to the auction because it has not received a firm commitment from both parties.
The design for the 1800-MHz band calls for a reserve price of 11.6 billion baht per 12.5 MHz licence. However, the reserve price will be set at 16.57 billion baht if there are only two qualified bidders taking part.
The winning bidders must roll out their 4G networks to cover 40% of the population within four years after obtaining a licence.
The draft auction designs also include the spectrum cap limiting each mobile operator to a maximum of 60 MHz of spectrum, including for 4G.
The spectrum cap aims to promote a level playing field among operators, preventing excessive bandwidth holding in a particular frequency range.
The cap applies only to telecom frequencies including those either under concessions or the licence system.
Telecom operators holding more than 60 MHz of bandwidth can still participate in 4G auctions, but a winning bidder must return any excess amount of bandwidth if its overall spectrum exceeds the 60-MHz limit.