NTC Cautious in Granting 3G Licenses
By Komsan Tortermvasana, Bangkok Post, Thailand
Apr. 8–The National Telecommunications Commission says it will not rush to grant licences for third-generation (3G) services because it may affect existing mobile-phone concessions.
Gen Choochart Promprasit, the NTC chairman, said that although the regulator intended to grant licences this year, it could not yet say who would receive them or when.
“We should be cautious to ensure granting 3G licences will not affect the existing concessions,” he said.
The NTC, he said, would have to make the qualification process clear, because it did not want to affect TOT Plc or CAT Telecom, which own the concessions granted to privately owned mobile phone services.
He said that the draft regulation would clearly define 3G service and licensing conditions and whether bids should be called for licences.
He said that if a private operator was granted a 3G licence and later shifted it to a new company, it would reduce the revenue sharing-payments either TOT or CAT.
He noted that the NTC has already permitted TOT and Advanced Info Service to import and deploy HSPA technology to test mobile broadband services, but the commercial launch by AIS, the country’s largest cellular operator, needed further consultation with the NTC.
“We only insisted that testing of the HSPA technology on the existing network was possible but in case of a commercial launch, we need to revise first for clarity.”
Gen Choochart said that CAT Telecom was also seeking permission from the NTC to allow its concession holders, DTAC and True Move, to import and test HSPA technology on their networks.
“We are processing their requests with speed because we don’t want to impede their technological development,” he said.
However, he said that the NTC might take a more cautious approach on legal terms for True Move because the company had obtained the 1800 MHz bandwidth from DTAC to provide 1800 GSM services.
Therefore, legal issues might arise if True Move imported HSPA for testing on the original 800 MHz frequency band A owned by CAT, he said.
This included Hutchison CAT Wireless Multimedia in case CAT sought permission from the NTC to allow to Hutch import third-generation technology for testing on its 800 MHz band A network in 25 central provinces, he said.
Hutch just held marketing contracts and not concessions and therefore the legal aspects should have to be considered with caution.
Meanwhile, AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said he was still not certain whether the NTC’s permit for AIS to import HSPA technology was limited to just “testing” or to a test and commercial launch.
He said AIS had already imported some equipment from Huawei of China and was expected to test services in the fourth quarter.
He said that after the test was finished and a commercial launch was ready, only TOT and CAT Telecom would be granted 3G licences from the NTC. If this was the case, then AIS had no choice but to operate under the same revenue-sharing concession, he said.
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