Dtac CEO Jon Eddy Abdullah has announced that his company is now in negotiations with concession holder, state-owned telco CAT Telecom for adoption a wholesale-retail business model similar to the contracts that CAT previously signed with another operator (TrueMove).
“We will fully explore this business model and work with CAT and other stakeholders to confirm if such a model can work in a 4G scenario,” he said.
Abdullah said that returning the unused 1800 for reallocation would be the best long-term solution and would not object to the NBTC including the frequency in the 1800 auction scheduled for September 2014.
Based on the reserve price set for the 2100 MHz spectrum, Dtac’s 24.5 MHz unused frequency’s value is estimated at more than $700 million (22 billion Baht). If it is pooled together with 25.2 MHz from DPC and Truemove and 20 MHz of 900 MHz from AIS, the overall frequencies ready for auction in 2014 could generate more than $2 billion (62,725 million Baht) in revenue for the exchequer.
Dtac previously had 50 MHz of 1800 before it half was recalled by CAT, citing that Dtac did not demonstrate a need for all 50 MHz. Dtac has maintained that under the concession agreement, it has exclusive rights to that spectrum until 2018. CAT, backed by the ICT Ministry, argues that it can use that spectrum.