Controversy over telecoms act | Bangkok Post: tech

The long-awaited National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) law, which passed senate approval late last month, contains some controversial issues that may set back development in new convergence technology services, especially the number of commission members, inflexible details, an "auction"-only licence acquisition model and the lack of coverage of new media and internet technology.

Vice President at Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) Somkiat Tangkitvanich.

All these issues are to be discussed again by house of representatives this August.

If the house disagrees with the parts amended by the senate, they will set up a joint house-senate committee to reconsider the bill. If they still cannot resolve their differences, the constitution will mandate to use a house representative version and announce this as law by August or September.

Somkiat Tangkitvanich, Vice President of the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said the bill on the establishment of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) which passed senate is controversial in many issues, especially the increase in number of NBTC members from 11 to 15.

Most countries have less than 10 members in their respective commissions. For instance, the FCC in the USA has only five members, Ofcom in the UK only nine, and ACMA in Australia has eight, of which only three work full time.

"Too many bosses will increase the workload and cause confusion at the secretarial office. The role of the NBTC is to set policies, not implement them," said Somkiat.

Another issue mandated by the senate is to allocate enough frequency resources to cope with security defence tasks. As it is, some defence or military frequency uses are commercial in nature and not related to security issues.

Somkiat admitted that 90 percent of the bill is satisfactory, but 10 percent should be amended to allow the use of telecom frequency licenses to transfer data from the exclusive rights licensees which cannot transfer over the Mobile Virtual Network Operator business model.

The senate has also extended its grace period from one year to three years for ToT and CAT to transfer concession revenue after deduction costs to the NBTC and then forward the amount to the state.

And there is no rule that mandated state enterprises cannot be lost if ToT and CAT fail to profit. "If they don't have this source of revenue, other state enterprises, such as the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority could be lost," Somkiat explained.

However, under the legal process, the senate bill will be brought back to the house of representative to consider whether they agree on the senate's amendments, If the bill is not accepted by the house, it will set up a joint house-senate Committee to revise it once more. If a compromise still cannot be reached, the constitution indicates that the lower house version will be finally be used.

"So, if there are no hold-ups, this bill can be made law and enforced by this August or September, with the mandate to select the NBTC within six months," said Somkiat.

"When the law comes into effect, the current NTC will operate in an acting position until the new NBTC members are confirmed."

NTC Commissioner Pana Thongmeearkom added that the bill should not change all the NBTC members at the same time, instead allowing half of them to remain in order to facilitate a smooth transition period.

For example, three incoming NTC commissioners could work with three exiting commissioners to achieve seamless integration.

The bill should not specified the names of the organisations and agencies that have the right to be in the NBTC selection committee.

TCT: Law 'disables' telecom industry

Kosol Petchsuwan, honorary president of the Telecommunications Association of Thailand under Royal Patronage (TCT), said the NBTC bill passed by the senate render the Thai telecom industry "disabled", because it is not flexible enough to cope with the ever-changing nature of dynamic digital technology, and this means the government is losing opportunities.

The bill mandates that service licenses can only be won by "auction", but in fact, there are many ways to secure a license that may suitable for various uses.

Kosol said the bill should clearly define comparative qualifications in order to secure telecom service operator licenses and broadcasting service licenses.

At the Asean level, Thailand still does not have an allocation frequency master plan, while Vietnam does.

This means the kingdom is losing opportunities to plan available frequency for new services.

Law firm: New media not covered

Meanwhile, Paiboon Amonpinyokeat, founder of P&P Law Firm, said this draft still cannot resolve the persisting problems in the principle of regulated telecom and broadcasting without linkage with Internet and New Media.

The bill as it stands cannot be applied to the current telecoms situation.

When considering the definition of "broadcasting" and "telecommunication", this bill remains stuck in details regarding traditional broadcast media such as analogue radio and television frequencies, while contemporary technology allows for broadcasting via the Internet, with no need for a traditional television or radio station set-up.

The technology allows users to implement peer-to-peer (P2P) software and cloud computing to broadcast their content.

Moreover, in the NBTC, there is no representative from organisations or associations which are related to the Internet, information technology or new media from the private side.

In Section 6 of the draft, the committee members' qualification field does not mention expertise or experience in the Internet or new media.

The draft still solely considers expertise from traditional broadcasting and telecommunication fields.

This is quite different to the component experience of the Director General of Telecommunications at Ofcom.

Paiboon continued that the NBTC has not regulated for new media or the Internet and still focuses on traditional radio frequencies and telecommunication models, despite the increasing use of P2P, cloud computing and web 3.0 technology, which could lead to misinterpretations of public law. A regulator may not interpret public law if certain laws are not clearly specified.

In Section 41,The bill also covers regulated radio and broadcasting specified only by service providers who use traditional radio frequency or TV broadcasting methods, excluding the broadcast of voice, clips, videos or movies via the Internet, creating a gap for new media service providers to enter the market without regulation and cause the government to lose revenue from technology which replaces traditional broadcasting. "The UK's Telecommunications Act of 1984 had a much broader definition of telecoms than Thailand but still has the enforcement problems with new media and internet. The UK thus announced the Communication Act of 2003 to resolve the problem," said Paiboon.