March 22, 2016 - dtac Trinet (DTN) today submitted its views regarding the
pending re-auction of Lot 1 of the 900MHz band to the NBTC in the form of a letter.
Lars Norling, Chief Executive Officer, Total Access Communication PLC or dtac,
said: “We appreciate NBTC’s arrangement of the 1800 MHz and 900 MHz
spectrum auctions to serve the demand of more spectrum bandwidths to
cope with the ever-increasing data usage growth. With sufficient supply
of spectrum, the mobile industry can further expand
the capacity to serve the potential growths of various sectors.
However, there are also concerns that excessive pricing of spectrum
could be detrimental to the sustainable growth of the mobile industry.
Even more, with the failure of the successful bidder
to pay for the spectrum auction price, it can be argued that there was
an artificial demand for spectrum, driving auction price of both
auctions excessively high.”
In addition, the letter states that:
•
While proceeds from high-priced spectrum may be viewed as gains for the
Government in the short run, there may be adverse consequences
in the long run, such as reduced capacity for operators to invest in
mobile networks, less predictability for investors and higher volatility
in the market as manifested by recent reductions in sector market cap
around 500,000 million Baht within 1 month.
This in turn may have a negative impact on the Government’s ambition of
a Digital Thailand, for which mobile technology is a key enabler.
•
DTN supports NBTC to re-auction such 900 MHz Lot 1 based on NBTC
notification with all existing auction rules and criteria. The
re-auction
is considered as a fixing of the previous 900 MHz Lot 1 auction,
therefore the re-auction of 900 MHz Lot 1 shall be limited to only the
last unsuccessful bidders in the previous 900 MHz auction. Moreover, the
reserve price shall be set at 16.08 billion Baht
(in case there are less 3 bidders) according to the existing auction
rules, which will allow the true demand of this spectrum lot set its
realistic value.
•
As the re-auction of 900 MHz lot 1 is a re-run of the previously
unsuccessful auction, DTN believes that it is fair to unsuccessful
bidders
to compete in bidding for the spectrum based on the same rules. DTN
encourages NBTC to proceed with proper public hearings to ensure that
all related stakeholders have an opportunity to express their views. DTN
would be pleased to give further comments during
the public hearing process to support NBTC for the successful
re-auction of 900 MHz lot 1.
