The new board of Thailand’s regulator has been royally endorsed, paving the way for four 3G licenses to be issued this year.
Thailand’s Cabinet Secretariat yesterday advised the National Telecom Commission (NTC) that the Royal Household has approved the appointment of four new NTC directors, said The Nation.
The Royal Household last month asked the Prime Minister’s Office to “double check” the proposed NTC directors backgrounds, after it emerged that one of the nominees Col. Natee Sukolrat is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
But Natee, a former TOT executive, has been royally rubber stamped to join the NTC, effective last Thursday.
Natee told The Nation that the NTC would rush to allocate 2100MHz spectrum for 3G.
The new NTC board will have to move quickly to finalize the country’s 3G auction parameters, given the six-year terms of the remaining three commissioners end in October.
The NTC plans to sell one 15MHz 3G license and three 10MHz licenses.
Meanwhile, a senior Indian official said 3G bid invites and auction details will be issued this week.
“[The] NIA [Notice Inviting Applications] will be issued by the end of this week,” Indian Communications Minister A. Raja told Business Standard.
“The auction process will take 40-45 days from the issuance of NIA,” he said.
The government had intended generating 350 billion rupee for its budget coffers by March 31.
There is a huge pent up demand for high-speed mobile data services in India, given the country’s tiny fixed line broadband takeup.
Google India’s product manager Alok Goel told Business Standard that mobile internet users in India had more than doubled from January’s 8-10 million users