The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has made an about-face on the planned auction of the 1800-megahertz spectrum, returning to its original three-licence scheme of 90MHz in bandwidth (upload and download) instead of tripling the number of bandwidth slots to nine blocks.
The move comes in response to prospective bidders claim that the amended draft will hurt their long-term business strategies, assuming operations under a 30MHz licensing scheme.
The 30MHz of bandwidth per licence is also in line with the previous two licence auctions of 1800MHz in 2015, says NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith.
Mr Takorn said the NBTC office is also set to ban JAS Mobile Broadband (JASMBB) from joining the 1800MHz auction because the company defaulted on the first payment for its licence in March 2016. The company can take part in other auctions after bidding on the 1800MHz spectrum concludes.
In 2016, JASMBB confiscated its deposit guarantee of 645 million baht and paid a fine of only 200 million.
Although JASMBB has already paid the fine, the company pushed up the winning price for the 900MHz licence, sparking the ban.
The 1800MHz spectrum ranges are operated by Total Access Communication (DTAC), under a concession from state-owned enterprise CAT Telecom, which will expire on Sept 30.
The original draft of the planned auction had been approved by the NBTC board, passing the public hearing phase in December. There are three licences of 30MHz each, with a reserve price of 37.45 billion.
The NBTC office amended details of the auction draft in January, dividing the bandwidth into nine blocks, but the amended draft has yet to be approved by the existing NBTC board.
In another development, True Move, through its subsidiary True Move H Universal Communication (TUC), yesterday made its second 900MHz licence payment on April 2, worth 4.3 billion baht, including VAT.
TUC also gave bank guarantees worth 64.4 billion baht, including VAT, to the NBTC.
TUC was one of two winners of the 900MHz licence auction in December 2015, with a winning price of 76.29 billion baht.
The licence payment has been divided into four instalments, with the last, worth 60 billion baht, to be made in 2020.
But TUC and Advanced Info Service are waiting on the government to invoke Section 44 of the interim charter to ease their burdens by expanding the licence payment term from 2020 to 2024.