Thailand's telecoms regulator is considering ditching the long-delayed plans for 3G licenses and jumping straight ahead to LTE/WiMAX licenses later this year. Pana Thongmeearkom, commissioner of the NTC, told Dow Jones Newswires that the government plans to hold an auction to issue three licenses for "3.9-generation" wireless services by September.
The regulator has been trying to award 3G licenses for the past couple of years, but the political situation has made it difficult. The regulator had been short of four directors, preventing decisions from being taken, but this has been resolved after the nominees recently secured Royal endorsement.
Several of the networks are already running limited trials of WCDMA networks in the 900Mhz band, but lack of radio spectrum is hampering their deployment.
"3.9G technology is a more advanced technology than 3G that is based on the 2.1-gigahertz frequencies but allows much faster data transmission which would provide greater benefit to consumers," Pana said.
Last month, the regulator outlined plans to offer licenses in the 2.3Ghz bands, although this space is currently occupied by state owned operators, TOT and CAT along with the military. A plan will be worked out this year to reclaim the spectrum from the occupants. An option to offer 2.5Ghz spectrum has been ruled out as it is occupied by broadcasters.
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