The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) insists that the auctions of Total Access Communication's (DTAC's) 2G mobile spectrum will take place before the company's concession expires on Sept 15 to prevent service disruption and protect users.
The outgoing NBTC board announced that it will auction three 1800-megahertz licences and the 850MHz licence held by DTAC by mid-September.
Approval of the 1800MHz auction design will be the top item on the agenda for the board's April 25 meeting, said Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC.
The move provides some clarity for the industry, which for months questioned whether the NBTC board had the authority to hold the planned auction.
The announcement came after the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) voted overwhelmingly to turn down all 14 final candidates for the new NBTC board during a closed meeting on Thursday, saying that more than half of the candidates were disqualified.
NLA's recruitment process is back to square one, and it will be months until new candidates are selected.
Mr Takorn said the existing NBTC board has been serving as an "acting" NBTC since its six-year term expired last October. The NBTC Act, put in effect last year, establishes that an exiting NBTC board can continue to perform routine tasks until the new NBTC board is officially appointed through the Royal Gazette.
The existing NBTC board, however, has been granted the authority to handle critical situations, as confirmed by the Council of State.
Previously, the NBTC sent a letter to the Council of State asking whether the existing board could conduct the auction. The Council of State replied that the existing board had the authority to do so.
With the recruiting process upended, the NBTC may have no choice but to push forward the planned 1800MHz licence auction as planned.
Mr Takorn said the existing NBTC board had suspended its consideration of the 1800MHz design draft on April 11, reasoning that it would wait until the NLA's April 19 deliberation, since the authority to approve the draft lies with the NBTC board.
Mr Takorn said he has yet to see any legal challenges to the planned 1800MHz auction, as significant conditions of the auction draft are based on the previous 1800MHz licence in 2015, including the quantity of spectrum bandwidth allocated to each licence.
The reserve price of each 1800MHz licence is also set at the winning price of the 2015 auction, in order to eliminate claims of unfairness from mobile operators.
The 1800MHz auction draft was approved by the existing NBTC board in December of last year and passed the public hearing forum in that same month.
The NBTC plans to auction 90MHz of bandwidth (upload and download) on the 1800MHz spectrum, dividing it into three pairs of spectrum slots (three licences, each containing 30MHz).
There are three licences on the 1800MHz spectrum: the first slot has 1740-1755MHz for upload and 1835-1850MHz for download; the second has 1755-1770MHz for upload and 1850-1865MHz for download; and the third slot has 1770-1785MHz for upload and 1865-1880MHz for download.
Each 1800MHz licence is set at a 37.45-billion-baht reserve price (for 30MHz of bandwidth), based on the winning price of the 1800MHz licence in 2015.
The auction establishes a three-term payment scheme for winners: 50% of the winning price in the first year; another 25% in the second year; and the last 25% in the third year.
Mr Takorn said the telecom regulator has to allocate more spectrum at appropriate times to maintain the digital service ecosystem and prevent a shortage of spectrum resources.
Fifth-generation (5G) wireless broadband, for example, will not be commercially available until the 5G ecosystem is capable of handling massive processes on mobile platforms.
DTAC operates on the 1800MHz and 850MHz spectra under CAT Telecom's concessions, which are set to expire on Sept 15.
Mr Takorn said DTAC's portion of the 850MHz spectrum has 10MHz of bandwidth.
The NBTC has already drafted the 850MHz licence auction and passed the public hearing process for the 1800MHz auction. However, the existing NBTC board may not approve the current 850MHz auction plan.
On the possible communication signal interference between DTAC's 850MHz slot and an adjacent slot the NBTC allocated for the government's high-speed train project's radio communications, Mr Takorn said: "It is too risky to allocate the 850MHz spectrum for mobile service, even though it is not yet clear whether there is signal interference from the adjacent slot."
The existing NBTC board may need to wait before auctioning the 850MHz spectrum, at least until technical issues are clarified by studies, Mr Takorn said.
The 850MHz licence range is 890-895MHz for upload and 935-940MHz for download.
The 850MHz licence is set at a reserve price of 37.9 billion baht (10MHz of bandwidth) based on the winning price of the 900MHz licence in 2015.
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