ICT ministry says WiMax and 3G licences imminent

ICT ministry says WiMax and 3G licences imminent

The Information and Communications Technology ministry says WiMax and third-generation (3G) mobile network operating licences should be allocated to operators by mid-2009.

The ministry intends to table a proposed merger of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, which will be jointly mandated to award licences, to the cabinet tomorrow.

ICT minister Mun Patanotai said he was confident the ministry would be able to submit the plan to Parliament in January.

"If everything follows the plan, 3G and wireless broadband WiMax licences should be awarded by June next year," he said at a recent forum.

The announcement, however, follows a series of broken deadlines on issuing next-generation operating licences.

A long delay in issuing new frequency licences to telecom operators was due to the absence of an NBC. Under the Frequency Allocation Act, both the NTC and NBC are to jointly award new frequency licences and prescribe their use.

Kittin Udomkiat, an NTC telecom expert, said a framework for awarding WiMax spectrum and licensing rules as well as certain technical issues would be completed by mid-December.

He said the spectrum for WiMax in Thailand would tentatively be on the 2.5 GHz and 2.6 GHz band with a total of 40 MHz due to the greater availability of equipment and devices.Dr Kittin added that WiMax spectrum licences were likely to be offered in an auction rather than through the alternative "beauty contest" approach.

Dhanant Suphadrapandhu, an executive of CAT Telecom, said WiMax was expected to drive mobile broadband in Thailand, competing directly with fixed-base broadband ADSL technology.

The local wireless broadband market is projected to be worth US$406 million in 2009, fuelled by stiff competition between fixed and mobile operators.

Worldwide, 260 operators in 110 countries offer WiMax technology and the number of subscribers is expected to reach 113 million by 2012.

Sanchai Thiewprasertkul, chief marketing officer of Advanced Info Service (AIS), said WiMax was likely to replace fixed ADSL and support internet protocol (IP) services including Voice over IP, and could be an access network to share users of IP core networks with 3G.

He said AIS would consider deploying WiMax for internet access services if the technology were commercially mature. It would focus on suburban and upcountry areas and charge 500 baht a month for six gigabits of usage, he said.

Bangkok Post
By Srisamorn Phoosuphanusorn