CAT TELECOM plans to ask the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission again to consider permitting it to upgrade its idle 20 megahertz of bandwidth on the 1,800MHz spectrum to provide fourth-generation wireless broadband service, said CAT's acting chief executive officer, Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana.
The NBTC recently declined its request on the upgrade pending CAT's obtaining consent from Total Access Communication (DTAC) first.
CAT has granted 50MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum to DTAC, which currently uses only 25MHz. Of the remaining idle bandwidth, 5MHz was been allocated to the NBTC for reallocation by auction.
CAT's plan to ask again for the spectrum upgrade follows last week's decision by the NBTC telecom committee to consider allowing TOT to upgrade its bandwidth on the 2.3-gigahertz spectrum to provide 4G service, pending TOT's submission of a related business plan. Sanpachai said CAT needed to upgrade and use the idle bandwidth as part of its plan to use the spectrum efficiently.
"We plan to be a 4G network provider. We're looking at wholesaling 4G bandwidth to our MVNOs [mobile virtual network operators], which might want to offer 4G as well as 3G service," he said. Sanpachai said that besides providing cloud services and a submarine cable network service, CAT needed to provide 4G service in order to serve the government's "digital economy" policy.
Besides the 1,800MHz spectrum, CAT holds 15MHz on the 850MHz spectrum, on which it provides 3G service jointly with True Group. Its rights to the 850MHz spectrum will expire in 2025, while that for 1,800MHz will end in 2018.
CAT is preparing to present to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry its plan to set up a joint venture with DTAC to run telecom towers under a concession contract. The CAT board has approved it and is waiting for the State Enterprise Policy Commission to consider it.