Thailand’s ICT Minister has announced that a deal has been reached between AIS and concession holder TOT for a partnership going forward, adding that all animosity between the two have now ended.
Uttama Savanayana said that the two sides had reached agreement and TOT would no longer be launching a lawsuit to halt the 900-MHz auction.
The ICT Minister said that the partnership deal would encompass the 900-MHz, 2100-MHz and 2300-MHz bands. He said he would be meeting with the telecom regulator to allow the development of 2300 for 4G use until TOT’s implicit licence expires in 2025.
As a sweetener, the MICT will throw in a $141 million (5-billion Baht) loan for TOT.
The NBTC will decide whether to grant Uttama’s request on 29 October.
NBTC telecoms chair colonel Setthapong Malisuwan told reporters that there were many technical details to be covered in allowing the use of 2.3-GHz, and that the spectrum could also be used for WiFi.
2.3-GHz cannot be use for WiFi, but it is presumed that Setthapong was probably referring to interference with 2.4-GHz WiFi.
AIS was contacted but declined to comment on the announcement as it is the quiet period in the run-up to the 4G auction. TOT has not made any public statement regarding the tie-up with AIS either.
In this high stakes game of poker, the MICT has blinked first and caved in but is it enough? TOT for its part wants 900 and 2300 without anything to do with AIS and has claimed a huge number of $2.8 billion (100 billion baht) in damages, not loans, from the illegal amendments to its concession agreement.
TOT also has petitioned the office of the comptroller general and the office of the auditor general to investigate the telecoms regulator for dereliction of duty in allowing AIS’ 2G entity to transfer customers to its new 3G entity rather than hand them over when the concession ended last month.
Meanwhile, fellow state telco CAT Telecom has asked for permission to develop a 4G LTE network on the unused part of its 1800-MHz spectrum.
CAT now has 20 MHz of unused 1800-MHz spectrum that is under concession to Dtac but was recalled back in 2006 and has lain unused ever since.
This comes hot on the heels of a no-strings attached deal that allowed Dtac to develop a new LTE network on its existing build-transfer-operate 1800-MHz concession that ends in 2018 and another no-strings attached deal where Dtac and CAT returned 4.8 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum to the NBTC for re-auction.
Earlier Dtac declined to comment on how they can break-even on the new network with just three years left on the concession.