The National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission garnered more than 57 million baht from the country's first auction of "lucky" mobile phone numbers on Sunday, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said.
Mr Takorn said 10 individuals took part in the auction, in which 16 numbers deemed to be lucky were on offer.
Nine numbers, each with eight identical digits, were auctioned off for a total of 57.96 million baht -- 09-4444-4444 for 6 million baht; 06-1111-1111 for 6 million baht; 09-1111-1111 for 6 million baht; 09-0000-0000 for 6 million baht; 09-8888-8888 for 8.1 million baht; 09-5555-5555 for 6.89 million baht; 06-5555-5555 for 6.9 million baht; 09-6666-6666 for 6 million baht; and 09-7777-7777 for 6.07 million baht.
There were no bids for the seven other numbers. They were two numbers with nine identical digits -- 08-8888-8888 and 09-9999-9999 -- and five numbers with eight identical digits -- 06-222-2222, 09-3333-3333, 06-3333-3333, 09-2222-2222, and 06-4444-4444 .
These seven numbers will be offered at the next auction, which will be held in March or April next year, said Mr Takorn.
At that auction the NBTC will also call for bids on 1,388 numbers, each with six identical digits, and 137 numbers, each with seven identical digits.
Mr Takkorn said the median prices for the numbers with six identical digits may be set at 300,000-500,000 baht and numbers with seven identical digits at 700,000-800,000 baht.
The median prices will remain 6 million baht for the lucky numbers with eight identical digits and 20 million baht for the numbers with nine identical digits.