Timeline set out for 2.1GHz telecom licence auction

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's telecom committee has approved its time frame for the auctioning the long-awaited 2.1-gigahertz spectrum licences.

Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the committee, said yesterday that it would draft the detailed auction plan, propose the starting price of the licences and hold a public hearing on the plan from March to April.

In May it will release the complete details of the auction rules and in June it will invite companies to take part in the bidding, expected in September or October.

The telecom panel will set up three working groups to examine the legal aspects of the auction, revise the draft rules for telecom-infrastructure sharing and draw up regulations for the cellular-network roaming reference fee.

The committee has assigned NBTC staff to revise the regulations preventing foreign dominance of telecom operators, focusing on the clauses that appear to contradict the country's international trade commitments as well as the ambiguous sections.

These moves are all aimed at encouraging as many local and foreign telecom operators as possible to tender for the 2.1GHz licences.

The NBTC 2.1GHz spectrum management subcommittee is considering hiring US firm Nera Economic Consulting again or choosing other foreign consultants to be the NBTC's auction adviser.

The now-defunct National Telecommunications Commission engaged Nera in 2009 to plan the process for auctioning 2.1GHz licences in September 2010. But the planned auction was suspended by the Central Administrative Court in the same month at the request of CAT Telecom, after CAT's challenge of the NTC's licensing authority at the same court.