Every so often, we return to our roots as communications engineers and report on stories and events relating to the telecommunication sector. This is one such story.

On Saturday, Thailand’s telecommunications regulator, NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) finalized their 3G Information Memorandum. This sets in place a framework for a bidding process to award 3G licenses to carriers operating within Thailand.

This is the fourth attempt at setting out a process for 3G bidding. The rules set out must be approved by parliament before the bidding begins.

The new process includes a 28% fee increase to 12.8 billion Thai Baht ($384 million) over the original 10 million Thai Baht stated in previous proposals. The revisions also allow for second installments to be paid in year three. One item that has not changed is the controversial clause indicating that if there are three qualified bidders, only two licenses will be awarded during the first round. However and third auction could begin 90 days after the first auction is carried out. The proposal allows for three, 15 year licenses to be auctioned beginning August 30th this year.

Thailand is one of the few countries without any official 3G service. Many of the existing mobile operators have launched sudo-3G services in various areas to allow subscribers to utilize some form of the service within Thailand’s borders prior to any licenses being granted. The operators offering limited 3G service are AIS, DTAC and iMobile. Rumors have sprouted that True may also have a 3G test bed launched but as of this writing it was difficult to confirm.

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