Thail and has scrapped a plan to allocate an extra 5 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum to its upcoming 4G auction due to the complexity of recouping it from DTAC.
"The planned auctions of 30 MHz of bandwidth on the spectrum will have to be scrapped," said Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), in a Bangkok Post report on Friday.
In July, a report claimed Thailand’s government planned to increase the amount of 1800-MHz spectrum to 30 MHz from 25 MHz by securing an extra 5 MHz from DTAC by modifying the telco’s operating licence.
DTAC holds the spectrum under licence from CAT Telecom. The proposed change to its concession would enable DTAC to return an unused 5-MHz block of 1800-MHz spectrum without violating Thailand’s public-private joint venture act.
"The whole process will not meet the auction schedule," said Takorn on Friday.
"We will have to auction only two licences of 25 MHz of bandwidth, with each licence of 12.5 MHz, instead of two licences of 15 MHz each," he explained.
Thailand’s 4G auction process has also been dealt a blow by the withdrawal of CAT Telecom.
The operator reportedly pulled out after failing to find a foreign partner with whom to jointly bid for spectrum. CAT Telecom said it was also put off by having to disclose its budget ahead of the auction.
