Five firms pick up 1800MHz bid docs

Five firms pick up 1800MHz bid docs

Chakkrit Urairat, deputy director for regulatory relations at True Corp, registers to pick up bid documents at the NBTC office.
Chakkrit Urairat, deputy director for regulatory relations at True Corp, registers to pick up bid documents at the NBTC office.

Five companies all affiliated with the three major mobile operators picked up official bid documents for the planned 1800-megahertz auction on the first day the telecom regulator made them available.

The bid documents will be available until June 14. Some companies are still soliciting advisory services before their boards decide whether to join the auction.

The five companies are: Advanced Info Service (AIS) and its subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network; True Move H Universal Communication (TUC); and DTAC TriNet and DTAC Broadband, two subsidiaries of Total Access Communication (DTAC).

Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said the commission strongly believes that the planned auction of 1800MHz licences is enticing for operators and will be needed to handle rising demand for online services, innovative applications and the Internet of Things via mobile networks by 2020.

The fifth generation of wireless broadband is expected to be commercially launched globally during that time, with the 5G ecosystem capable of serving every need on the mobile platform.

"It's too early to predict how many companies will submit bid documents by June 15, but the NBTC is confident several operators want to acquire 1800MHz licences," Mr Takorn said.

The NBTC plans to auction a total of 90MHz of bandwidth (upload and download) on the 1800MHz spectrum, divided into three licences each containing 30MHz of bandwidth.

The 1800MHz spectrum is operated by the third-largest operator, DTAC, under CAT Telecom's 2G concession, which expires on Sept 15.

Each 1800MHz licence has been set at a reserve price of 37.45 billion baht (for 30MHz of bandwidth), valid for 15 years. The 37.45-billion-baht reserve price is based on the winning price of the previous auction of 1800MHz licences in 2015.

Based on the existing timeline for the auction, the NBTC has invited any interested party to pick up bid documents from May 15 to June 14.

All interested parties must submit the bid documents at the NBTC office on June 15 and each prospective bidder must place 1.87 billion baht (5% of the reserve price) as a bid guarantee for the June 15 auction, plus a letter of intent to pay 5.61 billion baht as surety in case a bidder defaults on a licence payment.

The NBTC will consider bidder qualifications for the first round from June 16 to 28 and plans to announce the qualified bidders on June 29.

The regulator will run a Q&A session and simulate the auction process for qualified bidders from Aug 1 to 3. The auction date is scheduled for Aug 4.

Tuesday, TUC said its combined bandwidth of 110MHz (upload and download) serves data demand for its 27 million subscribers.

TUC has hired a consultancy to conduct a feasibility study of investing in the frequencies that are up for auction.

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