The company is also in talks with TOT to lease the state agency’s 900MHz cellular base stations to provide the 2G service. It prefers to wrap up the deal first before paying the first instalment of the 900MHz licence upfront fee.

Suphachai said that the two fund-raising options are recapitalisation and fund mobilisation via other methods – such as bond issuance, and borrowing. If the company chooses the first option, it would be for the board and the shareholders to make the final decision.

Suphachai reaffirmed that True has no difficulty in paying the first instalment of the 900MHZ licence upfront fee. It has set an appropriate timing to pay the instalment.

The two bid winners, True and Jasmine International (JAS), have yet to pay the first instalment of over Bt8 billion. True and JAS each won the 900MHz licence by offering Bt76.298 billion and Bt75.654 billion, respectively. The licence has a 15-year term.

Speaking to the Nation Group on Wednesday, Suphachai said that True was in talks with TOT to lease the state agency’s cellular base stations to provide the 2G-900MHz wireless service. The company is working on the details with the state agency and trying to wrap up the deal as soon as possible. True will utilise the 900MHz to offer both 2G and 4G services.

True’s chief financial officer, Noppadol Dej-udom, said in the same interview that renting TOT’s base stations would enable the company to quickly offer the service nationwide. Once the deal is concluded, True can kickstart the 900MHz service nationwide immediately. He added that if True submits the bank guarantee right now, before all the pieces of the jigsaw are in place to generate revenue, it could cost the company the bank guarantee fee of around Bt5 million per day without the revenue to cover it.

He said that it was not necessary for the company to pursue recapitalisation but the decision depended on the shareholders.

Speaking at a separate event, Arthid Nanthawithaya, Siam Commercial Bank’s chief executive officer, said SCB is taking the lead in seeking syndicated bank guarantee to support True’s 900MHz licence payment.

SCB is in talks with more than seven to eight local and foreign banks combined on the matter. This deal is expected to be concluded before the 90-day deadline, given that True has a promising business plan and a strong foreign strategic partner in China Mobile.

Suphachai said that the market competition from now on would focus on fulfilling the demands of individual and corporate users, who need telecom services and mobile content to enhance their lifestyles and working styles.

He denied that True would be overpaying for the 900MHz licence, adding he was confident there was still ample room to grow revenue in the market.

The rationale behind its aggressive pursuit of the 900MHz licence was part of the company’s strategy to acquire a new subscription base and additional growth, given that the 900MHz has existing users.

The spectrum was earlier held by Advanced Info Service, whose concession expired last September. Failing to win the 900MHz licence has prompted AIS to hurry to migrate all 11 million customers from the spectrum to its other spectra.

Moreover, the low band 900MHz is technically suitable for expanding service coverage. This window of opportunity to bid for the much-needed 900MHz will not come again in the next 20 years.

True recently announced it would spend Bt55 billion over three years, mostly on the 4G-network rollout. It has set an ambitious target of capturing 34 per cent of the market’s revenue in five years, up from 20 per cent at present.

Meanwhile, JAS is expected to pay the first instalment to the NBTC after it completes talks with AIS on the deal to allow AIS to roam 2G customers on JAS’ 900MHz.

Recently, JAS disclosed that Bangkok Bank is one of its major sources of funding. However, a source in the banking industry said that BBL has requested JAS to submit a new 4G business plan to seek financial support. This is because the final licence price JAS quoted to win the licence was far higher than the price estimated in its original business plan.