TOT is crying foul over the delay in approval of its partnership deal with Total Access Communication (DTAC) on the 2300-megahertz spectrum, with TOT's 2019 profit target now at risk.
Settapong: Technical conditions at issue
The state telecom enterprise is wondering why the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has yet to approve the draft deal despite previously allowing TOT to develop business on 60MHz of the 2300MHz spectrum without stating any specific technology conditions, said TOT president Monchai Noosong.
"Without any operations from the deal, it is impossible to turn TOT's operations to profit by 2019 as was planned," he said.
In 2015, NBTC said it would let TOT use its 2300MHz spectrum until 2025 but that TOT had to submit a business model for approval.
Earlier this year, TOT selected DTAC as its partner for 4G services on the state telecom's 2300MHz spectrum after almost six months of intense competitive bidding among the three big mobile operators.
TOT and DTAC jointly drafted the partnership contract and previously aimed to ink the contract by December 2017.
Mr Monchai said TOT had pinned hopes on a mobile partnership deal with a private company to create a new revenue stream for the company, especially after amassing a cumulative deficit over the past two years after expiry of the 2G concession of Advanced Info Service (AIS) in September 2015.
TOT now operates under a turnaround plan focused on its profitable businesses. TOT last year booked total revenue of 30.8 billion baht and a net loss of 5.8 billion baht.
Yesterday, Mr Monchai and his team met with NBTC officials to clarify the details of the proposed partnership with DTAC, including technical conditions of transmission.
The meeting was in line with the resolution of the NBTC board last week in which members said they needed TOT to clarify technical details to the telecom committee.
After the meeting, Col Settapong Malisuwan, chairman of the NBTC's telecom committee, said the panel was withholding its green light because TOT still needed to provide clear details in terms of transmission for services and connectivity.
Col Settapong said TOT must develop service under broadband wireless access (BWA) technology or a fixed-link network.
TOT has to cooperate with the NBTC to provide assurances on technical aspects of the deal before a conclusion will be submitted to the telecom committee again in mid-December.
If approved by the telecom committee, the partnership deal will pass to the NBTC board for official approval.
An NBTC source said a point of contention is that the commission wants TOT to use BWA technology on the 2300MHz band.
BWA technology provides high-speed communication access by wireless means to consumers and business markets.
The most common example of BWA is wireless LAN, but efforts are continuing to deliver widespread broadband access by deploying radio technologies like metropolitan area networks, cellular networks, radio LANs and wireless personal area networks (WPANs), which can even be combined in one single device to ensure seamless operation.
"So, TOT and the NBTC have to jointly clarify that TOT's deal is in line with the telecom committee's intentions," the source said.
Previously, DTAC said it was committed to investing in more than 20,000 base stations nationwide through its DTAC TriNet, covering 80% of population and paying an annual fixed payment of 4.51 billion baht to TOT for 60% of its total network capacity.
TOT would rent equipment from DTAC TriNet for using the remaining 40% of network capacity to provide its own 4G service.
A telecom analyst said the delay in the partnership deal, plus uncertainty surrounding the next auction before DTAC's concession with CAT Telecom ends in September 2018, is inevitably creating a dilemma for DTAC.
