The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) is working on a plan to ensure an upcoming auction of six mobile spectrum bands in May is free of collusion.
Officials of the Thai telecom regulator have been asked to consider a way to group the spectrum bands to ensure meaningful competition among bidders and create a clear framework for each round of the auction, said Dr Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck, the NBTC chairman.
The NBTC board in January approved a draft for a planned auction of six spectrum bands: the low bands of 850MHz, middle bands of 1500, 1800, 2100 and 2300MHz, and the high band of 26GHz.
An earlier draft proposed dividing the auction into three sessions, starting with the low band, followed by the mid bands and the high band.
Officials on March 12 proposed to the board that all the bands be auctioned together in one session. However, board members expressed concern that this could lead to collusion, and sent NBTC management back to the drawing board.
Somphop Purivigraipong, the NBTC commissioner responsible for telecom business, said the auction must be held before the August expiry dates of the 850, 2100 and 2300MHz bands now being used under partnership agreements between state-owned National Telecom (NT) and private sector operators.
Currently scheduled for May 6, the auction is expected to attract both major operators True Corp and Advanced Info Service (AIS) to obtain more spectrum to boost their network capability.
AIS is likely to focus on the 2100MHz band, according to telecom analysts, while True is expected to aim for 2300MHz as each of them use those bands under partnerships with NT.
There are currently an estimated 100 million mobile accounts in Thailand, with True holding a 54% share of the market and AIS the rest.
The NBTC has proposed a combined reserve price of 121 billion baht for the six spectrum bands.
- Special Report: Bandwidth battle begins