NTC confident about 3G licensing in august

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation

The national telecom regulator believes it can grant third-generation (3G) spectrum licenses on schedule in August and affirms the licensing will be conducted transparently.

But the National Telecommunica-tions Commission (NTC) must further delay the schedule to grant licences for WiMax wireless broadband technology from mid-year, pending the completion of WiMax trials of 13 private companies, said secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn.

Suranan said the NTC told Ricardo Tavares, senior vice president for public policy at GSMA who visited the watchdog agency yesterday, that the NTC would try its best to grant licences on schedule for 2.1-gigahertz spectrum bands to offer 3G broadband cellular service.

GSMA is the mobile-phone industry's global trade association, representing more than 700 GSM mobile-phone operators worldwide.

The NTC board assured him 3G spectrum licensing would be carried out in the utmost transparent manner.

Suranan said Tavares told the NTC that his major concern was the transparency of 3G licensing, which was the key to ensuring fair competition.

Interconnect Communications, the NTC's consultant for drafting the 3G licences, is expected to finish the first draft of 3G licensing terms and conditions next Monday, and the NTC will look into it next month.

The global common practice of granting 3G spectrum licences includes an auction or a "beauty contest", which refers to companies with the most viable proposals getting the licences.

Three major cellular operators - Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move - are eager to pitch for the 3G spectrum licences. In parallel, they are moving with a plan to develop the 3G service on their existing spectra.

While progress has been made on the 3G-licensing side, Suranan said the NTC had to put off plans to grant WiMax licences from mid-year, because 11 of the 13 companies testing WiMax could not complete the tests this month. They requested the NTC to extend the trial period for another 90 days.