Intel urges 'attractive regulations and policies'

The world's largest semiconductor company, Intel, has recommended that Thailand's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) develop attractive regulations and policies surrounding the WiMax wireless broadband technology, to draw international investment.

Further, it said, these "attractive regulations and policies" should involve the 2.3GHz band, with 30MHz of frequency per provider, and the auction method should be used to allocate licences covering the entire country.

Intel's telecom regulation and policy manager for Southeast Asia and Australia, Leighton Phillips, said such a policy could draw a lot of investment interest and funding from investors such as Intel Capital.

He said the two vital and fundamental criteria Intel considered when considering investment were that licences had to cover the whole country and each must grant at least 30MHz of frequency.

To date, Intel Capital has invested in WiMax in four countries in Asia: Taiwan, Japan, Australia, and Malaysia, with investments ranging from US$20 million to $50 million (Bt708.77 million to Bt1.77 billion).

He said regulatory change would encourage the growth and expansion of WiMax adoption and draw huge funding and investment. For example, Intel Capital invested $1.6 billion in US-based WiMax operator ClearWire after the US regulator amended its regulatory policy on WiMax, changing the service parameters and allowing re-banding to create contiguous licences.

"This regulatory policy change attracted $3.2 billion in new capital and led to aggressive WiMax deployment in the US," Phillips said.

Intel recommended that the Thailand regulator consider spectrum allocation in the 2.3MHz band because this was the spectrum chosen by many countries around the world and its adoption would mean that WiMax equipment, devices, solutions and services would be lower-priced because they would come from a mainstream market, leading to cheaper products for Thai consumers.

"An allocation of at least 30 MHz of freq uency would help operators to generate better returns on their investment, and offer attractions for investors. We also recommended that the regulator consider an auction system, rather than a beauty contest, as the best method of allocating frequencies to operators because an auction requires the shortest time," Phillips said.

According to the US-based Analysis Group, the availability of a wireless broadband network will create a consumer surplus around 18 times the spectrum value. And according to a paper called "The Economic Impact of Stimulating Broadband", published by US company Connected Nation, WiMax deployment will allow the creation of 2.4 million jobs.