THE NATIONAL Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's telecom committee will meet on October 29 to consider permitting TOT to upgrade the use of its bandwidth on the 2.3-gigahertz spectrum to provide fourth-generation wireless broadband service.
Doing so would help the state agency maximise its spectra to survive in the post-concession era, NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said yesterday.
The telecom committee's decision to consider the case follows a discussion between Information and Communications Technology Minister Uttama Savanayana and the NBTC yesterday to seek ways to help TOT maximise the benefit it derives from the 2.3GHz spectrum.
TOT currently uses 64 megahertz of the 2.3GHz spectrum to provide a signal transmission link |for telecom services. It can use the spectrum until 2025.
TOT will have to draw up the request for |the upgrade and the related business plan to be presented to the telecom committee, Uttama said.
An NBTC source said that once the new NBTC law takes effective, TOT could hand a part of the spectrum to the commission for reallocation and receive compensation.
Recently Takorn said TOT should maximise use of its 2.3GHz spectrum bandwidth to provide wireless broadband services as one option for survival. The state agency should not hold on to its 900MHz spectrum, licences for which the watchdog will put up for auction on November 12, but should instead focus on making the most of its 2.3GHz spectrum.
TOT granted the 900MHz concession to Advanced Info Service, but the concession expired last month.