“Cash and letter of bank |guarantee (L/G) are ready, waiting for a signal from the boss to submit them to [the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission] NTBC,” True chief financial officer Noppadol Dej-udom said.

True sent a letter last Friday to ask the NBTC to clarify what the regulator would do to prevent possible damage to True in the event that True fulfils its initial payment and bank guarantee but the other licence winner, Jasmine International, fails to do so by the deadline of March 21.

The NBTC replied to True last Friday that the 900MHz licences will be put up for re-auction three months after March 21 if True or JAS fails to pay the first instalment of the licence fee and provide a bank guarantee by that date. The licences will be re-auctioned at the final prices offered by the winners.

If only one winner of the December auction fails to meet the deadline, the other one that honours the agreement will be able to take part in the re-auction. If no one takes part in the re-auction, the bid will be postponed for one year.

The NBTC will also consider claiming damage from a winner that fails to pay the first instalment.

The NBTC telecom committee resolved all these measures last week in response to market speculation that JAS will fail to pay the first instalment by the deadline.

True Move H Universal Communication, a subsidiary of True, and Jasmine Mobile Broadband, subsidiary of JAS, won telecom licences on the 900-megahertz spectrum at an auction in December by quoting Bt76.298 billion and Bt75.654 billion respectively. Each will get a licence once it pays the first instalment and places a bank guarantee.

A source from True said that True is ready to install 900MHz cellular network equipment at 300 sites per day once the company obtains the licence.

“It will install the equipment on its existing 850MHz telecom towers. Of the total of 10MHz of 900MHz towers, half will be for providing 2G service and the other half for 4G service,” the source added.

Earlier True announced to launch the 900MHz service next month and the service will be nationwide in May.