Hundreds of TOT employees took to the streets yesterday to protest against the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry's planned auctions of the 900-megahertz spectrum for fourth-generation licences.
The protest was organised by the TOT labour union with a crowd of TOT employees rallying at its headquarters before marching to the ICT Ministry.
The protesters want the ministry to support the state telecom enterprise keeping 20 MHz of bandwidth on the 900-MHz spectrum for its own use after its concession with Advanced Info Service (AIS) expires on Sept 30.
The labour union wants the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to halt the planned auctions of its 900-MHz spectrum to provide 4G service.
The NBTC plans to auction two licences of the 900-MHz spectrum in December, each containing 10 MHz of bandwidth.
Anuchit Toopleung, president of the TOT labour union, insists TOT has the right to use the spectrum as it was given permission to operate it without an expiry date by the defunct national spectrum management committee, which was under the Transport Ministry 20 years ago.
After receiving the permission, TOT granted mobile leader AIS a concession to operate 2G mobile service on the spectrum.
The union also voiced opposition to the amendments made to AIS's mobile prepaid revenue-sharing concession with TOT. They want the ICT Ministry to seek compensation of 72 billion baht from AIS stemming from the amendments made in 2001.