Thailand's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) says it has finishing drafting third-generation terms and conditions, paving the way for it to start fixing policies and hold public hearings prior to issuing licenses in mid-2009.
The board of the telecom regulator is expected to debate the draft regulations for 3G communication services early next year, said Suranant Wongwittayakamchorn, the secretary-general of the NTC.
The main policy decisions, he said, would relate to licensing 3G on 45Mhz of the 2.1 GHz spectrum.
In addition, he said, the board would establish how to award licenses--whether through a "beauty contest" based on technical capabilities or an auction, on a first-come first-served basis, or through a hybrid process.
Suranant said that once the main policies were agreed, public hearings would follow, and by mid-2009 the NTC should be ready to invite interested operators to apply for licenses.
He said that 3G policy had been stalled for nearly two years because of political disagreements that had held back the passing of the frequency allocation bill. The law would empower a new regulator or the NTC to allocate frequencies and issue telecom and broadcasting licenses.
Suranant said that if the House of Representatives could debate and pass the bill by the time the NTC was ready to issue licenses, the NTC board would suspend licensing and pass on the work to the new regulator immediately.
However, he was uncertain if the bill could be passed by the middle of next year or if the new regulator could be formed.
In that case, he said, the NTC would not wait but would go ahead with the 3G licensing by itself.
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