The Thai Supreme Administrative Court has upheld the suspension of the 3G licence auction, following a request from state-owned telcos CAT and TOT.
Last week, CAT Telecom applied to the Supreme Administrative Court to stop the process, claiming that the…
The Thai Supreme Administrative Court has upheld the suspension of the 3G licence auction, following a request from state-owned telcos CAT and TOT.
Last week, CAT Telecom applied to the Supreme Administrative Court to stop the process, claiming that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) did not have the authority to award licences. The NTC is currently being transformed into a catch-all media regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), and a court ruled that this entity should be fully formed before the auction can start.
CAT and TOT also argued that the 3G auction could impact their revenues. Under existing concessions, operators pay about 25-30% of their revenue to state-owned companies. This would compare to 6% under the new 3G concessions to be awarded.
“This is a very unfortunate situation,” Marc Einstein, industry manager for mobile and wireless communications at Frost & Sullivan, told TelecomFinance. “Thailand is one of the few countries in the region that still hasn’t rolled out 3G services and this could be a problem for operators and the Thai economy in general. Operators have seen their revenues declining and they were looking forward to the 3G auction process.” Most of Thailand’s neighbours – such as Cambodia and Laos – have already started rolling out 3G services.
“The decision of the Supreme Court also undermines the NTC’s authority,” added Einstein. “We don’t know for how long the process will be halted but this may last for quite some time, with CAT and TOT lobbying hard to stop the auction.”
The NTC was planning to auction three 15-year 3G licences in the last week of September, with a starting price of THB12.8bn (US$402.9m). Planning to bid were three telcos, Advanced Info Services, Total Access Communication and True Move.
