Thailand’s National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has formed a plan to reallocate spectrum for cellular services in the 1500MHz band currently used by state-run telco TOT and oil company Chevron Thailand. Thai newspaper The Nation writes that TOT uses 35.15MHz of the frequency for rural telephone and signal transmission services, while Chevron uses 56MHz for its operations including surveying and petroleum production divisions. TOT has informed the ICT Ministry of its plan to provide mobile phone services in the 1500MHz range.
Thanapant Raichareon, deputy NBTC secretary-general, explained that Thailand and ten other countries had supported the standardisation of the 1500MHz band or telecoms services during the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, last month. The NBTC expects that it will take four years to refarm the spectrum.