True Move H Universal Communication (TUC) plans to begin commercial 5G services on the 2600-megahertz spectrum range today.
Yesterday the mobile operator made the first instalment payment of 1.9 billion baht on the 2600MHz range won in last month’s 5G licence auction. The licence handover was also made yesterday.
TUC secured 90MHz of bandwidth on the 2600Mhz range for 19.1 billion baht in the Feb 16 auction.
Based on the conditions for the 2600MHz spectrum licence payment, 10% of the winning price must be paid in first instalment and the winners must also give a bank guarantee for the remaining amount.
Sarit Jinnasith, co-president of TUC, said the company is ready to provide 5G commercial service on the spectrum range through its 400 base stations. TUC earlier provided a 5G trial service under the telecom regulator’s approval.
TUC, he said, will provide free usage of 5G wireless broadband service for existing subscribers who have 5G-capable smartphones.
Unlimited internet package subscribers would also be subject to unlimited usage of 5G service.
Subscribers without unlimited internet packages will be given some additional data usage for 5G services on top of their packages.
Mr Sarit said the company’s board would look into setting up a budget for network roll-out investment within this month.
Suphakit Vuntanadit, group chief commercial officer of TUC, said the company holds seven frequency bands for mobile service, covering low-band 700,850 and 900MHz ranges; mid-band 1800, 2100 and 2600MHz ranges; and the high-band 26-gigahertz range.
This provides the firm a hold on all ranges for service, he said.
In last month’s auction, apart from the 2600MHz range, TUC also won 800MHz of bandwidth on the 26GHz range.
“Both spectrum ranges will be optimised to provide the best True 5G network services,” said Mr Suphakit.