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AIS likely to be sole bidder for Jas Mobile’s forfeited 4G licence.
AIS is likely to be the only bidder in the upcoming re-auction of 900-MHz spectrum in Thailand, after True Corp opted out.
"The company will not participate in the aforesaid re-auction since True Group already has a very comprehensive spectrum portfolio with sufficiently large bandwidth totalling 55 MHz," said True Corp, in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
"The company already obtained an ideal combination of low-band and high-band frequencies for its relative advantage in coverage and capacity respectively. This enables the company to effectively address all market segments and ecosystems with superior 4G, 3G, and 2G networks nationwide," the operator said.
A Bangkok Post report on Tuesday said that True Corp’s True Move unit was the only other company besides AIS to obtain bidding documents for the re-auction, which is due to take place on 27 May.
According to the report, today is the deadline for collecting the aforementioned documents, and applications to take part must be submitted to Thailand’s telco regulator, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) by Wednesday.
The re-auction will enable the NBTC to allocate the 900-MHz licence won by Jas Mobile in December’s auction that was later forfeited when the operator failed to meet its payment deadline.
A reserve price of 75.65 billion baht (€1.93 billion) has been set, equal to Jas Mobile’s winning bid. With AIS expected to be the only participant in the re-auction, in all likelihood it will collect the frequencies at the reserve price.
