Thailand Development and Research Institute President Dr Somkiat Tangkiatvanich has slammed regulator NBTC for secrecy in its calculation of the reserve price for the upcoming spectrum auction.
Somkiat accused the regulator of hiding behind the ITU without providing any transparency as to how the ITU consultants modeled the auction prices.
He noted that the the licence period had been quietly extended from 15 to 19 years without any corresponding increase in the numbers discussed.
Somkiat also criticized the auction format, which involves two 15 MHz 1800-MHz licences being auctioned off in the morning and two 10 MHz 900-MHz licences in the afternoon. This would be a big problem if there is only one new entrant and an even bigger problem if there are no new entrants at all, opening the door for collusion as was the perceived problem with the 3G auction, he said.
He also criticized the roll-out requirements as being too lenient at just 40% coverage in four years.
On the spectrum hoarding by the two state telcos, Somkiat said that the problem lay with the government that seemed to be focused on the survival of the state enterprises, not the economy as a whole. He noted that all the government has done since coming to power was to reshuffle their boards of directors.
The TDRI director said he was disappointed at the junta for using its special powers to delay the 4G auction once already and for extending the TrueMove and DPC 2G concessions yet again. He said that if the Junta really wanted to use article 44 of the interim constitution (the absolute power clause) they should use it to solve the matter of access charge and interconnection charge that has been ongoing now for far too long.