- Published: 23/10/2012 at 12:00 AM
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) announced the "statement of intention" to help calm public concerns that the auction held last week for the 3G spectrum unfairly rewarded private operators at the expense of consumers and the state.
NBTC chairman Thares Punsri said the regulator would put strict measures in place to protect the public interest before the spectrum is allocated.
The broadcast and telecom regulator said savings for consumers resulting from the 20% cut would amount to 73.1 billion a year or more than 1 trillion baht over the 15-year life of the licences.
The NBTC bases its calculation on the current charge for post-paid 3G services of 899 baht a month.
- EDITORIAL: Auction helped consumers
ACM Thares, joined by the regulator's telecoms committee headed by Settapong Malisuwan, said the bid winners must comply with the new pricing rule on 3G services plus enact measures to ensure service quality and consumer protection plans before they can launch their services.
NBTC secretary-general Thakorn Tantasit said lower operating costs and increased competition resulting from the introduction of 3G would make the service fee cuts possible.
According to the regulator, if the charge is reduced by 15%, the savings for users would amount to 54.8 billion baht a year, or 822.8 billion baht over the 15-year licence period.
Mr Thakorn said the NBTC could grant the 3G licences within 90 days of the auction result being endorsed. The commission will clarify any questions before giving licences to operators, he said.
Acknowledging public concerns that its Oct 16 auction generated lower-than-expected returns and that the bidding structure could lend itself to suspicions of collusion, the watchdog said it would set up a sub-committee to look into the bidders' actions before granting licences.
NBTC commissioner Suthipol Taweechaikarn said the investigation should take no more than 15 days. The results will be submitted to the NBTC's telecom committee.
Last Tuesday, the NBTC auctioned off nine 15-year licences for 41.6 billion baht, only 1.125 billion baht or 2.78% above the reserve price.
The auction winners were the big three telecoms players: AIS, which has more than 34.8 million subscribers, Dtac, which has over 23.9 million, and TrueMove, which has about 17 million.
AIS's subsidiary Digital Phone Co (DPC) has about 80,000 subscribers.
Meanwhile, the Central Administrative Court rejected the last remaining petition against the auction yesterday.
The petition was filed by Green Politics group leader Suriyasai Katasila and five associates.
Share your thoughts
- Discussion 1 : 10/11/2012 at 08:20 AM
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Just A quick Comment, 3G,4G and probally next 5G, Are Marketing Terms that in most cases are misleading In terms of User equipment (smart phone) download speed perceptions.
Remember this, LTE Advanced (Release 10 or above) is the hot way to go.
Demand Service Providers (System Operators) build base stations to this international Spec.
This and only this will ensure that users will be happy with the provisioned Quality of Service that they are paying for.
- Discussion 2 : 24/10/2012 at 11:30 AM
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onlyme #12 - Rice's scheme is about raising the quality of life of the exploited rice farmers, food security, and sustaining of industries and trades related to rice farming. It is not forever and will review from time to time. 3G is only relevant to those who need it. There is not a need for regulators to fix a fee. It is 'subscription based'. To compete for subscribers will mean competitive subscription structures provided by service providers. Whatever fee that may be, the regulator's job is to ensure quality of services and products. Regulator may want to fix a fee, but there will be liable for business failings and lawsuits.
- Discussion 3 : 24/10/2012 at 02:12 AM
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Just a Quick Comment, 3G at 2100 Mhz Near Tall Buildings or inside a car Trying to watch TV on your IPad ain't going to happen. Demand Stipulated Minimun Quality of service metrics in your contract!
And Good luck getting it.
- Discussion 4 : 23/10/2012 at 10:17 PM
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They are only trying to save face after the disaster they caused with the Auction Fiasco but it will not make up for the mess caused and losses to those who use phones very little.Thank goodness for Skype.
- Discussion 5 : 23/10/2012 at 08:01 PM
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bula- Who is dictating the price of rice by fixing an artificial price level? - the same as your statement 'NBTC should not dictate how much telco should charge its potential subscribers'. It should have regulations on quality of services and 'products' - there are no barriers or regulations on the quality of rice tendered. Local purchasers of rice are punished by use of taxes to purchase and store and future purchase price of rice. Is this tough to follow?
- Discussion 6 : 23/10/2012 at 06:20 PM
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Here is a dramatic idea .Why not just charge for call time instead of a 300-400 baht fixed service charge .
- Discussion 7 : 23/10/2012 at 03:53 PM
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onlyme #7 - Tell me, how the rice scheme and 3G are similar in essence and why there should not be different in approach when come to implementation of services and commodities.
- Discussion 8 : 23/10/2012 at 01:19 PM
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The future money maker is data not phone calls. As faster data connections are introduced in markets all over the world the volume of voice calls go down, and data shoots up. Give me a 15 to 20 % reduction in data plans. Over time that will really add up to consumer savings.
- Discussion 9 : 23/10/2012 at 01:19 PM
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Who is the math genius in the NBTC? If you take 20% of the monthly 899 baht fee, times 12 months in a year, then divide that into the 73.1 billion in savings per year, then that means half of Thailand is supposed to have 3G phones and supposed to be subscribed to an 899B post paid 3G plan. Lets get real, most Thais have pre-paid plans not monthly and even once 3G is countrywide the chances of half of all Thais having a 3G phone using data is slim to none.
Silly propaganda math aside, if they are going to force a price reduction on 3G data, then the same should apply to other data sources, such as ADSL.
- Discussion 10 : 23/10/2012 at 12:05 PM
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bula, listen to yourself now. I don't mean to bring this up for the thousandth time but parallel your statements with the rice scheme and what do you get?
- Discussion 11 : 23/10/2012 at 11:34 AM
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Sorry, my posting #4 should begin as "I think NBTC should not dictate... "
- Discussion 12 : 23/10/2012 at 09:05 AM
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Oldairman, you are so correct. My kids private school hiked their rates for the next year by 3% a few years ago the day after it was announced on the BP that the cost of living had reduced by 3% for the previous year. Fuel pump prices are another example of all take and no give. All compans are the same here.
However the NBTC says' if the charge is reduced by 15%, the savings for users would amount to 54.8 billion baht a year, or 822.8 billion baht over the 15-year licence period' - at least it'll cover 3-4 years of the rice pledging monster.
- Discussion 13 : 23/10/2012 at 08:49 AM
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I don't think NBTC should not dictate how much telco should charge its potential subscribers. It should have regulations on quality of services and products. Needs and market conditions and forces will make pricing structure competitive for those who can afford. Service providers should not be punished for the mistakes of the regulators.
- Discussion 14 : 23/10/2012 at 08:10 AM
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@oldairman
At least I get the benefit from this policy, for once. I don't see how the companies would lose money though. By the time they implement any of the cuts (if they in fact make a cut instead of throwing in useless extra stuff and say "there's your discount"), the "normal price" would've already been raised, and we'd be back to this exact same price, if not higher.
Realistically though, I think our cellphone charges are already quite competitive compared to everywhere else in the world. I wouldn't mind if it stays about the same. The service does leave a bit to be desired, but what else would I use as an excuse if I don't pick up?
- Discussion 15 : 23/10/2012 at 07:40 AM
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Of course reducing charges to the customer is a good idea but it also means less revenue to the government too and they will be screaming about that soon.
- Discussion 16 : 23/10/2012 at 04:31 AM
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You really think these companies are going to loose present level profits in order to bring savings to customers. This is Thailand your talking about....
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