Thailand May Set $200 Million Reserve on 3G Licenses

Thailand's telecoms regulator, the NTC is expected to set a reserve price of US$200 million for the smaller of the available 3G licenses when they are awarded - probably later this year. The final report from outside consultants, InterConnect Communications is understood to have recommended that four licenses are offered by an auction method.

If the recommendations are accepted, three of the licenses would come with 10Mhz of spectrum and a reserve price of US$200 million - and a single license with 15Mhz of spectrum with a reserve price of US$300 million.

The report will be published next month and the final plans for the license tender should be ready by August. As 3G phones support viable video streaming, there have been disputes as to whether the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), which overseas TV services should be involved in the licensing process. The argument seems spurious as it has been "technically" possible for even analogue phones to stream video services, albeit at very slow refresh rates.

Thailand's Advanced Info Service (AIS) recently launched a 3G network in Chiang Mai - but using its existing 900Mhz spectrum.

Posted to the site on 26th May 2008