A partnership deal between CAT Telecom and its concession holder Total Access Communication (DTAC)to develop 4G service on the state agency's idle 20MHz of bandwidth on the 1800MHz spectrum could be finalised within the next two weeks, CAT's acting president, Colonel Sanphachai Huvanandana, said yesterday.
Talks on securing such a deal began on Monday.
Apart from the possible partnership with DTAC, CAT is seeking support from the government to extend its 1800MHz spectrum-use term to 2025,from 2018, when its current concession granted to DTAC expires.
CAT is currently consulting the Council of State over whether the idle 20MHz of the spectrum is under the concession contract.
It has asked the government to consider revising the draft of the new frequency allocation law to allow all state telecom agencies to extend the terms of their spectrum rights.
CAT has granted 25MHz of its 50MHz of 1800MHz bandwidth to DTAC, 5MHz to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) for auction, and wants to use the remaining 20MHz for offering 4G ser vice.
Under the proposed partnership with DTAC, CAT would ask the telecom operator to invest in installing 4G equipment at DTAC's existing 1800MHz network base stations.
CAT would then use the 4G equipment to wholesale the capacity from the idle band to DTAC and other operators.
CAT has already asked the Central Administrative Court to drop its injunction, which prohibited DTAC from providing further network sharing by installing or connecting the equipment it operates under the CAT concession with the 3G and 4G equipment of another operator - in this case its subsidiary, DTAC TriNet.
Sanpachai said DTAC had already paid CAT the fee of around Bt670 million for using such equipment under the concession.
Once the injunction is dropped,CAT would use such equipment under its concession to wholesale 4G service, he added.