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Published on January 17, 2008

DTAC chief commercial officer Thana Thienachariya said yesterday that one possible model was that both would set up a joint venture to apply for a licence from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to offer the service.

DTAC will invite the press to try the service at the end of this month, he added.

"We want to show to the NTC that we've maximised our existing spectra," Thana said, adding that DTAC wants to exit the CAT concession while CAT wants to do nothing and wait for concession revenues.

 The cellular operators have turned to a plan to provide 3G services on their existing spectra and upgraded networks instead of waiting indefinitely for the NTC to issue new 3G spectrum licences.

DTAC, with more than 17 million subscribers, and its state concession owner have recently finished a joint test of the service on one cell site in Maha Sarakham province.

DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said yesterday that the test result had been satisfactory, given that the spectrum could provide wider signal coverage when compared to its existing 1800MHz spectrum.

But DTAC will not hurry to introduce the commercial 3G service until it can gain from CAT the right to use the 850MHz spectrum, he added.

Launching 3G at the moment means the service would have to provide a concession fee to CAT.

Yesterday DTAC sent a letter to the NTC to claim the right to replace CAT in using its own 1800MHz and 850MHz bands. It also asked for the NTC's unused 900MHz bands to back its existing cellular service offering.

DTAC has to defend itself after True Move last month informed the NTC that it wanted to replace CAT in using some of CAT's 1800 bands, which are being used by DTAC.

Brekke said the company's 3G service would cover both its mobile-phone users and users of high-speed data cards for laptop computers to wirelessly access the Internet.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation