Thai telecom regulator NBTC will resume its scrutiny into foreign ownership of the nation's telecom operators, including Telenor's part-owned subsidiary Dtac.
The regulator will conduct a thorough rule into the operators' shareholder structure to ensure their foreign ownership remains below the 49% cap, Bangkok Postreported.
Last month, the NBTC threatened to exclude Dtac from the upcoming 4G auction using Thailand's Foreign Dominance Notification provision, after Dtac exposed an alleged secret order to block Facebook for a brief period days after the recent coup d'etat. Dtac and Telenor were forced to apologize in a bid to stay in the race.
The resurrection of the foreign shareholding examination has thus been interpreted by some as a fresh attack on Dtac.
But the NBTC has insisted that it has no such agenda, and is bound to conduct regular examination of telcos' shareholder structures. The regulator asserted that under Thai regulations, operators found to be in breach of the foreign ownership restrictions cannot participate in a spectrum auction.
The NBTC has also denied issuing an order to block Facebook, insisting that the brief outage was due to a technical glitch.
Resurrecting the investigation is also seen as a signal that the NBTC wants to get the 4G auctions back on track. Thai junta the National Council for Peace and Order has suspended the auction process, and the NBTC wants to be ready for when the council gives the green light to resume it.