Thailand's telecom regulator has announced plans to extend the concessions of TrueMove and DPC (now part of AIS), each of which has 12.5 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum originally due to expire on 15 September 2013.
The move, announced by NBTC commissioner Pravit Leesathapornwongsa, was billed as a consumer protection move that will allow the two telcos to calmly port their customers to their new licensed 3G networks.
TrueMove has around 17 million users while DPC, since being absorbed by AIS, a 900-MHz operator, has only 80,000 users left.
Earlier, NBTC telecom chair Settapong Malisuwan said that he expected an auction of the expiring 1800-MHz spectrum around six months before the expiry, or around March 2013, for LTE 1800.
Last week, ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap met with the regulator to negotiate the return of expiring spectrum to CAT Telecom rather than to be re-allocated.