(Bangkok Post via NewsEdge) Thailand's National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) expects to award licenses for 3G mobile phone services by the second quarter of next year with or without the presence of a new regulator.
The NTC will hold the first public hearings on the regulations in Bangkok on August 27, followed by four more meetings in the provinces in September.
Draft rules should be completed by the end of the year and license auctions held by the second quarter of 2009.
'The NTC will also monitor the progress in establishing the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC),' said NTC commissioner Sethaporn Krusripitak.
'If the body can be set up in the very near future, we will submit the completed draft of the regulations to it.'
Sethaporn attributed delay in 3G licensing mainly to questions about whether the NTC could assign frequencies in the absence of the new regulator.
The Council of State, the government's legal advisory body, ruled late last year that the NTC could assign frequencies in the absence of the new regulator.
According to Sethaporn, the NTC is seeking public comments the methods for allocating international mobile telecommunications frequencies in Thailand, the number of licences to be awarded to operators, and the rights, role and conditions of licensing.
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