3G in Thailand

[nittaabi]

3G wireless broadband service in Thailand looks set to be dominated by incumbent telecom operators, which already have a firm foothold in the market.

Subsidiaries of Advanced Info Service (AIS), Total Access Communications (DTAC) and True Corp have emerged as the only three qualified applicants for 3G-2.1GHz spectrum licences at an auction due to be held in Hua Hin on Sept 20.

The three are expected to compete fiercely, as the National Telecom-munications Commission (NTC) will put only two of the three available 3G licences up for auction.

Four companies submitted applications yesterday, but one was found to be unqualified. AIS subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) submitted its application soon after 9am, followed by DTAC subsidiary DTAC Internet Service and True subsidiary Real Move.

WIN WIN NGV DISQUALIFIED

Suphan Buri-based natural-gas-for-vehicles car importer Win Win NGV submitted an application mid-afternoon, but it was later disqualified as it did not lodge the auction guarantee deposit of Bt1.28 billion at the same time. It submitted only the application fee of Bt500,000.

The NTC required all applicants to place both fees on yesterday's application submission date.

AWN lodged the auction guarantee with a Bangkok Bank cheque, while DTAC Internet Service placed its guarantee in the form of an HSBC cheque and Real Move used a Siam Commercial Bank cheque.

The NTC will take 15 days to conduct the pre-qualification process, before announcing the qualified bidders' names on September 14. If all three are deemed to have qualified, the watchdog will auction two of the three 3G licences, in accordance with its auction rules, known as N-1.

Its rules also provide for it to auction all three licences if there are at least four qualifying bidders, one licence if there are two bidders and no auction if there is just one bidder.

The NTC has hired Chulalong-korn University, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, Tham-masat University and the National Institute of Development Admin-istration to examine the documents during the pre-qualification process.

The starting bid price for each licence is Bt12.8 billion.

The NTC will conduct a mock auction for the press at its building on September 7, and will organise a press tour for September 17-18 at the location in Hua Hin where the auction will take place. But it has yet to disclose details of the auction venue.

Assuming all three prospective bidders qualify, the regulator will call an auction for the third 3G licence within 90 days of the first auction. The starting price at the next auction will be based on the lowest winning price at the first auction.

While NTC member Natee Sukonrat yesterday expressed confidence foreign telecom operators would join the bidding for the third licence, a telecom analyst believes none will take part. He reasoned that if they had wanted to bid for a 3G licence, they would have submitted their applications yesterday.

AIS's share price closed yesterday at Bt93, down 0.5 per cent, while that of DTAC closed at Bt48.75, down 1.5 per cent. The share price of True Corp ended at Bt7.30, 2.7 per cent lower than Friday's close.

AIS has more than 30 million mobile-phone subscribers, DTAC over 20 million and True Move about 16 million.

WIN WIN LINK TO SENATOR

Abortive bidder Win Win NGV has Pattamawadee Pothasuthon as managing director. She is the daughter of Prasit Pothasuthon, chairman of the Senate's science, technology, communications and telecom committee.

Her brother Yuthana Pothasu-thon, who is the company's adviser, said he was unaware that companies had to place a deposit of Bt1.28 billion when submitting their application. He thought they could do so within three days of submission.

He said Win Win NGV had a strong desire to bid for a licence, and denied that its attempt to take part in the auction had anything to do with his father's recent charge against NTC member Natee for alleged negligence of duty.

Last month, Prasit asked the National Anti-Corruption Com-mission to investigate Natee, head of the NTC's 3G-licence development panel, for setting an unrealistically low price for 3G spectrum licences, citing that it would |damage the national interest and favour private telecom operators.Some 20 companies picked up application forms to take part in the auction. The other 16 were AIS, DTAC, TrueMove, Samart i-Mobile, Jasmine International, Milcom Systems, Loxley, Sranrat, Samut Prakarn Media, Acumen, James and Partners Law Offices, Khaolak Bamboo Orchid, Apichaichatchaval Holding, Jaya Soft Vision, 365 Communication, and Rungake-raya.

Jasmine's share price closed at Bt1.43 yesterday, up 64 per cent from the close of Bt0.87 on August 2, the first day that companies could pick up the forms. Samart i-Mobile closed at Bt2.22, up 17 per cent from the close of Bt1.89 on August 2, while Loxley closed at Bt2.92, up 40 per cent from Bt2.08 on August 2.

The Nation

[bukeo]

Four companies submitted applications yesterday, but one was found to be unqualified. AIS subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network (AWN) submitted its application soon after 9am, followed by DTAC subsidiary DTAC Internet Service and True subsidiary Real Move.

gibt es da schon was genaueres - man hört nichts mehr davon.
Da werden die Laoten eher 5G einführen, bevor die Thais 3G durch haben.

[siamfan]

http://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news.php?id=255311160031
Scheint am "laufen" zu sein.

[siamfan]

Soweit ich das verstehe waren/sind die Verzoegerungen durch Gesetzesaenderung bedingt.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/2 ... on-of-nbtc

[siamfan]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/NB ... 44797.html

NBTC Act takes effect
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has taken effect after it was announced in the Royal Gazette Sunday.
The announcement prompted the current National Telecommunications Commission to become an acting NBTC pending the establishment of the new NBTC in 180 days.
The new NBTC will be in charge of allocating frequencies for broadcasting and telecommunications.
The Nation

[siamfan]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/ad ... zunwzh.jpg

[siamfan]

Dial 'C' for confusion
Government and telecom industry continue to spar over who gained and who lost, and how much, from concession changes.
Published: 5/01/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

The local telecommunications industry is preparing for the endgame this year in a protracted dispute over mobile concessions, though the government is still uncertain how to resolve the many legal issues involved.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/media/conten ... 220214.jpg

Operators have been working on the issue for years in the belief that amendments made over the past 15 years or so might be challenged one day and could cause turbulence in the industry.

The concessions of the top three players - Advanced Info Service, DTAC and True Move - have come under heavy scrutiny by the Democrat-led government. AIS, founded by Thaksin Shinawatra, has drawn most of the attention as officials focus on agreements that favoured companies linked to the telecoms tycoon-turned politician.

The mobile leader has countered by demanding fair and equal treatment, since its two smaller rivals have also benefited from changes to their agreements with state telecom enterprises.

All operators want to see clarity since their concessions do not have much longer to run, and it is becoming hard to make long-range strategic plans given the uncertainty. The agreement between third-ranked True Move and CAT Telecom expires in 2013, AIS's concession with TOT Plc in 2015, and DTAC's deal with CAT in 2018.

However, all indications are that policymakers will continue to focus on whether AIS secured changes that favoured it and weakened TOT financially. The government has prepared an estimate of damage from the amendments, which it said breached the 1992 Public-Private Joint Venture Act.

The Act calls for legislative scrutiny of any public-private ventures worth more than one billion baht. Specifically, Section 22 says that a project owner such as the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) ministry in the case of satellites, or TOT Plc for fixed-line and mobile services, must set up a committee with state and private representatives to review any contract.

However, many contracts bypassed the Section 22 committee requirement.

Attempts to review the concessions began under the government of Surayudh Chulanont after the coup that ousted Thaksin in late 2006. Sitthichai Pokaiya-udom, the ICT minister of the day, and Gen Saprang Kalayanamit as chairman of TOT, asked Council of State to interpret the concession amendments. The government's legal adviser concluded that none of the amendments followed the required procedures and thus breached the 1992 law.

The argument gained more weight when the Supreme Court ruled on Feb 26 last year in the assets seizure case against Thaksin. The court ruled that Thaksin had abused his authority to secure changes favourable to companies in Shin Corp, which his family sold to Temasek Holdings of Singapore in 2006.

However, AIS was not the only operator to make changes with TOT. Others included the enlargement by True Corp (then known as TelecomAsia) of its Bangkok fixed-line service for 2.6 million numbers, the expansion by TT&T Plc of its provincial network to 1.5 million fixed numbers, the installation of fibre-optic cable along rail routes by Com-link Co, and construction of a marine cable network by Jasmine International.

The case of True Move and CAT is particularly interesting. It never received a concession to be a full mobile provider. Allowing it to become a mobile provider bypassed the requirement under Section 13 of the 1992 law, which required the company to set up a joint committee with CAT to draft bidding conditions before applying for a mobile concession.

But every agreement requires two parties, which raises the question about whether state enterprise directors and executives failed to protect the public interest when they agreed to changes.

Dr Sitthichai, the former ICT minister, acknowledged that if the government pursued strong legal action against AIS, such as terminating its concession, switching back to the original contract or seeking financial compensation, it could cause turbulence in the telecom industry.

"Private operators have to fight to the end based on the fact that the authorised people who approved the amendments were all the state's people," he said.

"Will the boards of TOT and CAT fall under Section 157 of the Criminal Code for negligence of duty?"

He said operators should be treated fairly in terms of assessing both benefits and losses from the amendments.

The top priority, he said, was for any decision to allow the industry to move forward and benefit the public interest at large.

In late December the Supreme Court ruled that the amendments to the AIS concession were not legitimate and resulted in losses of up to 75 billion baht to TOT.

The figure is based on the conclusions of a committee appointed by the current ICT minister, Juti Krairiksh, to review the amendments.

The committee has recommended that the ministry pressure AIS to return to a 30% revenue-sharing payment for prepaid service, increasing in steps to 35% until the end of its concession in 2015.

The government has lost an estimated 55 billion baht since TOT agreed to reduce the share AIS paid on its prepaid mobile revenue. The committee also says AIS owes 20 billion baht from network roaming fees that it has refused to pay to the state.

An AIS executive said the damage figures from the reduction of prepaid revenue were based on a single view and were unfair.

Indeed, he said, the explosion of prepaid customer numbers - currently 90% of all mobile users - has enlarged AIS's customer base, resulting in more revenue for TOT. The revenue-sharing reduction for prepaid service to 20% was part of an agreement for AIS to reduce airtime rates for prepaid users.

In addition, AIS maintains, the damage figures were calculated from the amendment date through the remaining concession life, instead of 2010 at the time the legal challenge was raised.

Based on figures to the end of 2010, TOT lost 29.934 billion baht from the prepaid revenue reduction and 8.14 billion from the roaming amendment.

DTAC would also have to compensate CAT for the reduction in revenue-sharing, at an estimated 18.28 billion baht.

True Move would have pay 8.351 billion baht in compensation as well, while DPC, the subsidiary of AIS, would pay 2.766 billion.

[bukeo]

irgendwie versteh ich das Problem der Konzessionsvergabe nicht.
Laos, Vietnam usw. haben schon lange 3G und planen tw. schon die Einführung von 4G (1 G/bit). In der EU bastelt man schon an 5G.
Am besten Thailand vergisst 3G und führt gleich 4G ein - oder wenn sie noch weiter warten 5G

[bukeo]

Mein neues Spielzeug ist angekommen und wie man sieht funzt es auch.
Brauche es eigentlich nur um ebooks zu lesen, aber damit kann ich euch ebenso übers w-lan
aus dem Bettchen vor dem einschlafen noch kurz "Gute Nacht Jim-Bob wünschen.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q197 ... /E-Pad.jpg

sieht gut aus das Ding.
Was kostet es denn zur Zeit?

[Sukhumvit]

Sieht aus wie ein Samsung.