Jasmine International and True Corporation have won the two 10-megahertz 4G licences at the world's record prices of 75.65 billion baht and 76.30 billion baht respectively in a marathon auction that ended early on Saturday.
Jasmine's victory will pave the way for its first foray into mobile internet. The company currently provides landline broadband services under the 3BB brand.
The four-day auction, which ended in the 199th round, will bring in 151.95 billion baht in state revenue, bringing the total from mobile spectrum bids this year to 232.73 billion.
The auctions for the 900-MHz spectrum will go down in world history as being the priciest, breaking the previous record set in Hong Kong.
However, if based on per MHz per head of population, Thailand comes in second after Hong Kong.
“Bidders who fail to win a 900-MHz licence this time will have to wait another decade for the next low-band auction,” said Prawit Leesathapornwongsa, a commissioner of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), on Friday.
“Low band will be in very limited supply in the future,” he said.
Another NBTC commissioner, Korkij Danchaivichit, said: “Bidders for the 900-MHz licence enjoy higher profit margins than the global average by telecom concerns, at over 10%, thus affording them the chance to put up high bid prices.”
Industry analysts, meanwhile, said the prized 900-MHz licences could undermine future growth and dent the bidding winners’ income.
Most industry veterans said mobile operators were buying with the future in mind to reap the benefits of lucrative revenue streams stemming from 4G wireless technology.
“Operators are pinning hopes on tapping the country’s increasing digital and mobile internet usage,” one observer said.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the 900-MHz bidding winners would not be hurt by the world’s record-breaking bids, as operators earn revenue of at least 2 billion baht a month.
The figure is based on the calculation of an operator with 10 million subscribers and average revenue per user of 200 baht a month, a low price for data service on average.
Mobile leader Advanced Info Service has 43 million subscribers, followed by second-ranked Total Access Communication (DTAC) with 25 million and True Move’s 20 million.
Mr Takorn said Thailand’s current 900-MHz licences are the world’s priciest, breaking the previous record set in Hong Kong for such bandwidth auctions.
Only two batches of low-band spectrum are available in Thailand: 15 MHz of bandwidth on the 850-MHz spectrum, now being used by True Move under a wholesale-resell partnership deal that expires in 2025; and 10 MHz on the 850-MHz band, used by DTAC under a concession agreement with CAT Telecom that expires in 2018.
But DTAC’s 850-MHz band has already been assigned by the telecom regulator to be used for public wireless service on mass transit.
And while there is an extra 92 MHz on the 700-MHz spectrum, it is reserved for digital broadcasting and analogue TV services, Mr Prawit said.
“We [NBTC] cannot predict exactly when the 700-MHz band will be reallocated,” he said.
ICT Minister Uttama Savanayana said yesterday at NBTC headquarters that auctioning frequency bandwidth could generate substantial revenue for the government.
The money from the auctions may be used for public infrastructure development.
Mr Uttama said the Chinese government had expressed an interest in co-operating with the Thai government on development of broadband internet.
China has proposed that the Thai government adopt the Internet Plus policy to develop internet connectivity among Asean countries.
TOT Plc and CAT Telecom must maximise the utilisation of their existing frequency resources to improve revenue after the expiry of concessions, Mr Uttama said.
