The board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has unanimously approved a draft of the planned auction of six mobile spectrum bands.
The auction is expected to be held in the second quarter of this year.
Under the planned auction, there are three categories of bands, including the low bands of 850-megahertz, 1500MHz and 1800MHz.
The other sets are the middle bands of 2100MHz and 2300MHz, and the high band of 26GHz.
AM Thanapant Raicharoen, NBTC commissioner, said the NBTC office will hold a public hearing of the draft within 30 days.
The NBTC office plans to hold an auction of each of the spectrum categories, starting from low band, middle band, and high band respec‑ tively.
"The 850, 1500, and 1800MHz will be auctioned simultaneously," AM Thanapant said.
The 850MHz, 2100MHz and 2300MHz bands are being used by National Telecom (NT), but its licence expires in August this year.
The 1500MHz band had been used via a microwave communication system and is now vacant.
Part of the 26GHz range has been auctioned since 2020. There is some 100MHz bandwidth of the 26GHz left and available to be auctioned.
The 2100MHz range comprises part of NT's 2100 MHz, totalling 45MHz of bandwidth, and other parts of the range that were auctioned in the past, with licences of the auction winners to expire in 2027.
Another 15MHz of bandwidth on the 2100MHz range is also available for the auction.
AM Thanapant said the auction conditions would prioritise spectrum utilisation for optimum benefit, with price the least important factor in the decision.
He said it was too early to predict whether the auction will be successful.
However, NBTC previously hoped that the major operators would consider participating in the auction as consumers' bandwidth usage is growing every month.
NBTC insists the draft offers reasonable conditions to ensure it does not create too high a cost for the interested operators or the bid winners might pass on the high financial burden to consumers.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2939717/nbtc-mobile-spectrum-auction-set-for-q2