CAT decides to join the battle for 3G licence

CAT Telecom will battle against private telecom operators in the bidding for the 3G spectrum licence as part of next year's road map to develop both 3G and 4G services.

The state agency's president, Phisal Jorpocha-udom, said CAT was eager to secure the 2.1GHz licence to develop the 3G service and also the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology or the 4G technology service.

"It's our road map of wireless business next year. We plan to launch the 4G service only in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket," he added. The National Telecommunications Commission intends to award the 2.1GHz licences by the middle of next year.

CAT wireless businesses include code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000 1-x cellular service in 51 provinces. Hutchison-CAT Wireless Multimedia, a CAT joint venture with Hong Kong telecom giant Hutchison Telecom, provides the cellular service on a separate CDMA network in 25 provinces.

Phisal said he would ask Hutchison to upgrade its network in the 25 provinces to the evolution-data optimised (EV-DO) system to boost its data-transmission speed. CAT's network in 51 provinces already uses the EV-DO high-speed data-transmission technology.

CAT and Hutchison Telecom are in talks to merge the two networks.

Phisal said CAT was interested in forging a business partnership with its own private mobile-phone concessions True Move and Total Access Communication (DTAC) in many areas. In a separate development, the board of directors of state telecom agencies under the Information and Communications Technology Ministry reportedly plan to tender their resignations to pave the way for the appointment of a new board by the new government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.