NTC 'in no hurry' to

Sudharma is one of six serving NTC commissioners.

While some commissioners have said many times that the watchdog is expected to auction four 2.1GHz licences in the third quarter for telecom operators to develop the 3G service, Sudharma said there was no consensus among commissioners about the schedule.

"I myself never mention any deadline," he said.

Recently Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the licensing body to grant the licences before the technology was outdated.

Private telecom operators are eager to get the 3G licences to pave the way for their possible exit from the state concessions. They reportedly plan to move some of their current customers from the concessions to the licences as a means of reducing the concession fees. The average concession fee is around 20 per cent of their annual revenue, while the 3G licence is expected to cost them 6 per cent of revenue.

Sudharma said the NTC had a long 'to-do list' before it could grant the licences, ranging from determining a tariff structure for the 3G services to the format of the business accounts of the 3G licensees, who will be required to disclose actual business costs.

In addition, the NTC has to work out the auction process, the network interconnection charge rates for the 3G licensees, the requirements of the network coverage on the licence-holders and competition regulations to prevent market domination.

The 3G competition regulations will also be applied to TOT, which holds the 1900MHz spectrum, part of the 2.1GHz spectrum. The now defunct frequency-allocation committee granted the spectrum jointly to TOT and CAT in 2000, in the pre-NTC era. CAT is transferring its joint ownership to TOT.

Moreover, the NTC has to determine the licence validity period and the licence bidders' qualifications.

"We've yet to reach a conclusion on the appropriate foreign shareholding for the qualified 3G licence bidders," Sudharma said.

The NTC will hire a consultant to work out details of all the issues, while the NTC itself is determining the 3G annual spectrum fee and the 3G annual licence fee.

Sudharma said it was not fair to say Thailand did not have 3G service, given that the watchdog permitted telecom operators to upgrade their existing spectrums to provide the 3G service over six months ago, but some telecom operators had shown no progress in developing the service.

When asked whether the NTC could issue the 3G licences this year, Sudharma said: "We'll award the licences when we're ready."