Thailand's AIS says telecom regulators should be careful about allowing rivals DTAC and True Move to provide broadband mobile services on the 850Mhz band because it may breach concession terms and bring about legal disputes.

The market leader reacted after CAT Telecom officially asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to allow DTAC and True Move to import high-speed packet access equipment to provide 3G services.

AIS president Wichien Mektrakarn said that although the 850 MHz band was within the 800 MHz frequency range owned by CAT Telecom and granted to DTAC to provide mobile service, allocating the unused 850 MHz slot to DTAC to provide 3G could breach the terms of its CAT concession. It could require an amendment of the concession terms and cabinet approval under the 1992 joint private-public investment law.

In the case of True Move, also a CAT concessionaire, Wichien said that the third-ranked operator provided services on the 1800 MHz band and held no rights to the 800 MHz band. Therefore it could be a clearer breach the concession terms, he said.

The AIS president also said that given the legal concerns, the company was reluctant to provide mobile broadband on a major scale on its 900 MHz band, and therefore selected only Chiang Mai for a limited commercial launch.

There are technical limitations as well, since HSPA customers focused mostly on sending and receiving data, which could create congestion affecting other AIS customers.

AIS and other operators are improvising when it comes to 3G for the moment, and all would prefer policy clarity on the use of the 2100 MHz band, which is the 3G standard favoured by the International telecommunications Union.

AIS has just 300 3G customers in Chiang Mai, and about 3,000 customers using its data services overall.

Wichien said the company would ask the NTC whether its earlier application for deployment of 50 base stations using HSPA technology in Bangkok and other major cities could be shifted to Chiang Mai alone.

Source:Bangkok Post