AIS Gets Approval to Launch 3G
By Komsan Tortermvasana, Bangkok Post, Thailand
Apr. 30–The National Telecommunications Commission says Advanced Info Service can launch commercial third-generation (3G) mobile-phone services on the 900 Megahertz spectrum in Chiang Mai next month.
Suranant Wongwittayakumchorn, the secretary-general of the NTC, said that AIS, the concession-holder of TOT Plc, said the decision effectively meant that the service was not a trial but full-scale commercial service. It has also been granted permission to import HSPA to upgrade services on its network to 3G.
The upgrading of the existing 900 MHz spectrum does not require a new licence and AIS could provide commercial services outright, he said.
The country’s largest cellular operator had sought permission to upgrade 30 base stations in Chiang Mai to HSPA technology, he said. But if AIS wants to expand 3G coverage, it needs to ask the NTC for permission again to import HSPA equipment, he added.
He said the service upgrade was similar to the earlier permission given state-owned CAT Telecom to upgrade its CDMA service to CDMA EVDO under the same platform. He said it remained difficult to speculate on the demand for 3G services, pending the first full launch of 3G services by AIS and the market response.
However, he believes private operators might not invest much to provide 3G services on the existing spectrum because they were still bound by the revenue-sharing concessions with TOT and CAT Telecom.
The private operators wanted to invest only in a new spectrum, particularly the 2100 MHz bandwidth which the NTC could not yet license pending the drafting of the regulatory framework.
He said the NTC was authorised to grant 3G services on the 2100 MHz spectrum after the Council of State had ruled that it could grant licences even though the new National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) had not yet been formed. However, he said the 2100 MHz spectrum was reserved for telecom services only.
For convergence services, a licensee needs to apply with the NBTC, which will supervise broadcasting, if and when it is formed.
AIS plans to start offering 3G services, which require customers to obtain new SIM cards, in Chiang Mai on May 6. It plans to follow with commercial services in Bangkok in June. It is currently co-operating with TOT to import HSPA equipment to upgrade 100 base stations in the capital initially.
AIS president Wichan Mektrakarn said the 3G services in the initial stage would be limited because they were still based on the existing build-transfer-operate concession, under which all assets invested in by the operators would be transferred to the state.
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