Thailand has brought forward plans to sell off 900-MHz spectrum for 4G services, it emerged this week.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) on Tuesday announced that it will auction 900-MHz licences on 12 November, a day after its scheduled 1800-MHz frequency sale, Reuters reported.
It did not give a reason for the change in date.
The newswire quoted NBTC secretary general Takorn Tantasith as saying that the 1800-MHz sale will begin as planned on 11 November.
The news is not unexpected. Last month the Bangkok Post reported that the regulator was considering changing the date of the 900-MHz auction, which was originally scheduled to take place in December.
However, at that time it appeared that the NBTC’s most likely course of action would be to hold the two auctions simultaneously, or to carry out the 900-MHz sale first.
Six companies collected bidding documents for the two auctions, including Thailand’s major mobile operators.
The interested parties were AIS’s Advanced Wireless Network, DTAC subsidiaries DTAC TriNet and DTAC Broadband, True Move’s True Move H Universal Communication and Hutchison Telecommunications (Thailand), and Jas Mobile Broadband.
On Tuesday Takorn told a press conference that four leading operators would bid in the 1800-MHz sale, Reuters said, but it was not immediately clear whether these would be the sole bidders.
The regulator added that the government could raise in excess of 73 billion baht (€1.8 billion) from the process.
The state has four licences up four grabs, two in the 1800 MHz band and two in the 900 MHz band.
