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Published on February 4, 2008

Interested firms can go for either or both, Prasit Prapin-mongkolkarn, a member of the National Telecommuni-cations Commission, said last week.

Five WiMax and three 3G spectrum licences will likely be up for grabs, he told the seminar "On 3G WiMax Technology/Policy" held by the Thailand Telecommu-nications Association and Telecommunications Asso-ciation of Japan.

The two technologies let network operators provide bandwidth-hungry content such video streaming at high speed.

Prasit insisted that the NTC alone could grant the licences, even though the new regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission, would be established soon.

Prasit personally prefers auctioning 3G spectrum bands, even if that imposes a huge cost on bidders. Opting for a "beauty contest" to assign frequency bands might expose the NTC to criticism of favouring some bidders and the risk of resulting lawsuits, he warned.

In a beauty contest, applicants submitting the most promising 3G business plans win the licences.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation