The second part of Thailand’s 4G auction is being advanced by a month to 12 November, accelerating the rollout of new telecoms services after more than a year of delay.
The second part of Thailand’s 4G auction is being advanced by a month to 12 November, accelerating the rollout of new telecoms services after more than a year of delay.
The move means its 900 MHz spectrum sale will take place just one day after its auction of 1800 MHz frequencies, which were originally set to be put on the block in August 2014 but was postponed following the country’s military coup last year. The 900 MHz sale had been pencilled in for 15 December 2015.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, told a press conference that bringing the process forward would stimulate the country’s economy and pave the way for cheaper consumer services.
He said the 4G auction is expected to raise more than Bt73bn (US$2.06bn), and confirmed the four bidders that will participate in bidding for the two licences in the 1800 MHz band. They are the country’s top three mobile players – Advanced Info Service (AIS) (BKK:ADVANC), Norwegian-owned DTAC (BKK:DTAC) and True Corp (BKK:TRUE) – and local fixed line operator Jasmine International (BKK:JAS).
These companies reportedly also plan to bid for the two licences that are up for grabs in the 900 MHz band, alongside a consortium of local ICT and oil trading firms.
The delay to release additional spectrum, coupled with falling voice revenues, has helped push mobile operators towards cost saving measures such as sharing their towers.
AIS and DTAC are the latest telcos to become tower partners, agreeing to share 2,000 sites to accelerate the expansion of their networks.
The companies aim to start sharing the sites before the end of this year under a pilot scheme, which comes not long after DTAC agreed a separate infrastructure joint venture with state-owned CAT Telecom, due to launch in 2016.
DTAC secured Thailand’s first infrastructure sharing deal in October 2014 by securing a leasing agreement with Truegif, a fund partly held by True Corp.
The partnerships are in line with NBTC’s policy to improve telecoms services through infrastructure and equipment sharing.
