THE TELECOM committee of the National Broadcasting and Tel ecommun icat ions Commission has approved a request from Total Access Communication (DTAC) to upgrade the company's existing 1800MHz frequency to provide a 4G wireless broadband service.
Telecom commissioner Prawit Leesatapornwongsa said that approval was given on the condition that the upgrade must not impact CAT Telecom's plan to transfer 5MHz of the 25MHz idle bandwidth of 1800MHz held by DTAC to the NBTC for auction in November.
CAT granted the concession to DTAC to use 50MHz of 1800MHz to provide a conventional cellular service. DTAC currently uses only the first half of the bandwidth, which it wants to upgrade to provide the 4G service to enhance its existing 4G service on the 2.1GHz frequency.
Of the remaining idle 25MHz of 1800MHz, CAT will transfer 5MHz to the NBTC to auction and wants to use the remaining 20MHz to provide its own 4G service.
CAT has requested the NBTC's permission for the proposal. However, the Cabinet has yet to look into the CAT request.
DTAC chief executive Lars Norling said that getting the approval to upgrade the company's existing 1800MHz was good news for the telecom industry and consumers.
DTAC is looking forward to receiving formal approval from the committee, he added.
Prawit said that DTAC's plan to upgrade the frequency to offer a 4G service must not affect the NBTC plan to reshuffle the 1800MHz band positions of DTAC, TrueMove and Digital Phone Co.
Currently the entire 1800MHz range begins with TrueMove,which is positioned close to the first 25MHZ of DTAC's 1800MHz, then that of Digital Phone and the idle 25MHz of DTAC's 1800MHz.
The reposition is part of NBTC's plan to auction the combined 1800MHz spectrum bands of TrueMove and Digital Phone on November 11.
A Ministry of Information and Telecommunications Technology source said that the ministry would submit for the Cabinet's consideration on September 23 CAT's plan to hand over the 5MHz of 1800MHz to the NBTC and its plan to use 20MHz of the 1800MHz to provide a 4G service.
If the Cabinet gives the nod to the state agency's plan, the ministry would inform the NBTC before September 25, the source said.
The NBTC originally planned to call a bid of the combined 25MHz of 1800MHz of TrueMove and Digital Phone Co on November 11, featuring two licences, each with 12.5MHz.
If CAT hands over DTAC's 5MHz of 1800MHz to the NBTC for auction, the watchdog would have a total of 30MHz of the spectrum for auction, which would feature two licences with 15MHz each.
The NBTC has set September 25 as the deadline for CAT to hand over this 5MHz bandwidth. If CAT fails to do so, the NBTC would resume the original auction plan by auctioning only 25MHz bandwidth of 1800MHz.