EXPERTS URGES FEWER, MORE EXPENSIVE 3G LICENCES

       Telecom scholar Somkiat Tangkitvanich yesterday urged the national telecom regulator to award only a few third-generation 2.1-gigahertz licences and those at a high price.
       He said that way, the licensing would not be regarded by the public as a means to helping private telecom operators move away from state concession towards the licensing regime.
       Somkiat, vice president of the Thailand Development Research Institute, said the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) should auction off only a few licences, in order to ensure genuine bidding competition.
       It should also set a high auction price aimed at private telecom operators, which plan to migrate customers from the concessions to the licences to save on regulatory costs. Somkiat believes no newcomers will enter the bidding, only incumbent telecom operators.
       He cited analysts' reports that both state-concession owenrs TOT and CAT Telecom would earn a combined Bt150 billion to Bt180 billion in concession fees between now and the end of the concession period in six years.
       Both state agencies will lose some of this if their private concessionaires move to the licences.
       He made the comments during taping of the "Long Oey Yang Ngai" (How It Will End) Television programme on Channel 11. The other guest speaker on the programme was NTC commissioner Sethaporn Cusripituck.
       Sethaporn said the NTC's board might switch to auctioning only one or maybe even three licences if necessary, instead of four as planned now.
       The NTC board will finalise auction details at its meeting next Wednesday and put them to a second public hearing at the end of the month.
       Recently, TOT expressed concern that private cellular concessionaires might migrate customers from the concessions to the licences, to save on regulatory costs. This would hurt TOT, CAT and the state coffers financially.
       Private mobile-phone concessionaires pay about 20 per cent of their revenue in concession fees, while the annual 3G licences is estimated to cost them 6.5 per cent of revenue.
       But Somkiat said it did not have to be the case that a high auction price for a licence would prompt the winning bidders to pass that cost on to consumers later.
       The NTC could set a maximum service price.
       Moreover, if the 3G fee were too high, consumers would not use the service.
       He said capital used in the investment had no "nationality."
       What should however be scrutinised is whether the investment can provide the best service to customers.
       During the NTC's 3G public hearing last month, True Corp, parent of True Move, criticised the agency for ignoring the foreign-owernership issue in the 3G auction and said the NTC should not award the licences to foreign firms.
       True said the auction favoured larger firms over smaller ones.
       Somkiat quoted from a book that said often when national leaders felt themselves to be on shaky ground and could not address the problem head on, they fanned feelings of nationalism to boost their popularity.

       "Recently, TOT expressed concern that private cellular concessionaires might migrate customers from the concessions to the licences, to save on regulatory costs. This would hurt TOT, CAT and the state coffers financially.