
No company on Tuesday submitted a bid document to take part in the planned auction for licences to use two unsold orbital slot packages of 50.5° East and 142° East.
July 23 was the submission date for the document.
A source at the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) who requested anonymity, said the NBTC might have to review the situation in terms of what to do next.
According to the original auction's conditions, if only one company submits a bid envelope, the regulator will extend the timeline for a month for a greater number of interested companies to purchase the envelopes. The auction date would then be moved to Sept 21, from Aug 24.
If no company submits a bid envelope, the regulator will have to extend the auction timeline to give more time to companies to pick the bid envelopes.
According to the original timeline, interested companies can purchase the bid envelopes between June 4-25. The submission date for the bid document was July 23.
The regulator will name potential bidders for the auction on Aug 13. The mock auction is set for Aug 21, or three days ahead of the planned auction date.
Only two companies have picked bid envelopes: TC Space, a subsidiary of SET-listed Thaicom, and Prompt Technology.
The two slot packages are unsold from the previous licence auction of the right to use satellite orbits in 2023.
In 2023, NBTC held the country's first auction of the use of satellite orbit slots through five packages: 50.5° East and 51°E orbital slots, 78.5°E orbital slot, 119.5°E and 120°E slots, 126°E slot, and 142°E slot.
Space Tech Innovation, an affiliated company of Thaicom, clinched the second and the third package, while National Telecom grabbed the fourth package.
Although the NBTC has relaxed the planned auction's conditions to attract bidders of the two unsold packages, telecom veterans have previously expressed concern as to whether TC Space and Prompt Technology would submit the bid documents.
The telecom veterans noted that the coverage positions of the orbit slots in the two packages are too far away, such as in the Caribbean Sea and the Middle East, that would be challenging for developing commercial markets.
The NBTC board on May 13 gave a nod to an amended draft of the auction conditions for the two packages.
The amendment includes extending the timeline within which the winning bidders would have to launch satellites to five years after getting the licence, up from three years.