NTC ready to gazette 3G auction plan

Thailand's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has approved the final draft plan to auction 3G licences. The draft will be published in the Royal Gazette later this month, the Nation reports. Once the plan is gazetted, the NTC will accept licence applications for thirty days and the pre-qualification process will begin after that. The auction for the 2.1 GHz spectrum licences is planned for September. Under the draft, the starting bid has been set at THB 12.8 billion and if all three licences aren't taken up in the auction, the remaining licences will be auctioned within ninety days. The starting bid for the remaining licences will be equal to the second-highest bid in the first auction. The NTC will use the N-1 method only in the first auction. Under this method, all three licences will be auctioned off if there at least four pre-qualified bidders, if there are three bidders the regulator will auction off two licences, and if there are two bidders only one licence will be auctioned. If a licence holder rolls-out its 3G network to 80 percent of the population within three years they will be allowed to pay the final instalment of their licence price at the end of the fourth year, and if they roll-out to 80 percent of the population within two years, they will be allowed to pay the second instalment in the third year of the licence term and the final payment in the fifth year. Licence holders are required to list on the stock market within five years. Licence winners that are incumbent operators are required to submit their plan to return their existing spectrum and their corporate social responsibility plan within 45 days of winning the licence. Winning bidders are also required to launch services within one year after obtaining the licence and network roll-out must cover half of the population in two years, and 80 percent within four years.