Thailand goes to the auctioneers again tomorrow with two 10-MHz 900-MHz 15-year licences up on the auction block.
The national broadcasting and telecommunications commission has prepared for another marathon auction with the same four bidders as last month’s 30-hour 1800-MHz auction. AIS, Dtac, TrueMove and fixed-line incumbent Jasmine will be bidding for the licences.
NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasit said he was confident of a healthy bid. Jasmine still had no spectrum and desperately wanted it, while Dtac only has 15 MHz of long-term spectrum with its 50 MHz of 1800 expiring in 2018.
Takorn said that TrueMove and AIS, the winners of last month’s 1800-MHz auction, still would need more. AIS only has 30 MHz between its 2100 and 1800 licences, while TrueMove has 42.5, while today’s telcos need at least 60 MHz each, he reasoned.
Besides, Takorn said that the two would not let Jasmine or Dtac get spectrum on the cheap.
However, much of the media’s attention has been on the conversion of the NBTC office into four sealed luxury suites with bathrooms, a gym, massage chairs, 10-seat dining tables and five beds for the 10 bidders in each team to take turns sleeping.
Takorn said he has ordered the bidders to prepare all medication and three changes of clothes for the auction which has been mapped out for the first three days.
Each bidder will have 15 minutes to bid and 5 minutes for the bid to be processed so there will be three bids an hour. Each bid will increase the price of the spectrum by $17.9 million (644 million baht).
The auction starts at $357 million (12,864 million baht) at 9 AM on the 15th. Takorn said that by 9 PM on the 15th, the price per licence will be $723 million (26 billion baht), $862 million (31 billion baht ) on 6 AM on the 16th and $1.13 billion (41 billion baht) at 9PM on the 16th.
By 9 PM on the 16th the price per licence will be over $1.7 billion (61 billion baht).
A doctor is provided by the NBTC and bidders will not be allowed to leave their sealed rooms even for medical emergencies.
Takorn explained of one significant change to the auction process compared to last month’s 1800 auction. The payment schedule has been modified to 50% of the estimated price in the first year, 25% in the second and third years and any excess to the estimated price in the fourth year. This will stop the banks from fixing the auction through setting bank guarantee limits in advance and will allow the bidders to bid to the sky, he said.
In addition to the accommodations for bidders, 20 sleeping tents and mattress have been provided for media to camp out.
That is, if the auction happens at all.
In a strange twist, Thailand’s Ombudsman has written a letter to state telco TOT and the Ministry of Finance saying both should reconsider filing for an injunction for tomorrow’s 900-MHz auction if they believe it would cause financial damage to TOT.
TOT claims that it has rights to 900 MHz under an old ruling by the now defunct National Frequency Management Commission order issued in December 1990.
The letter which was published on Friday 11th was in response to a TOT union letter to the ombudsman after its request for an injunction was rejected by the courts.