TOT president Montchai Noosong said that TOT did not permit AIS to commercially use the spectrum but had allowed it to use it for technical preparations.

A source from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) said that the watchdog had last week probed TOT’s decision to allow AIS to trial the service for a total of 15 megahertz.

The source said that the probe followed the lodging of an informal complaint in which it was claimed that TOT should not allow AIS to carry out the trial, as they had yet to sign the planned partnership deal.

NBTC officials found that some customers of Advanced Wireless Network (AWN), an AIS subsidiary, used TOT’s 2.1GHz spectrum and called in AIS and TOT for inquiry last week, the source said, adding that TOT insisted that AIS used the spectrum on a trial basis only.

The source said TOT also claimed that the trial was part of AIS’ and TOT’s preparation to sign a memorandum of understanding for a joint 3G service on TOT’s 2.1GHz spectrum. The deal is being examined by the Office of the Attorney-General.

AWN currently provides a wireless broadband service on its own 15MHz of 2.1GHz and 15MHz of 1800MHz under the NBTC licensing regime.

Given its subscription base of over 38 million customers, AIS is keen to acquire additional bandwidth to serve mobile-data hungry customers.

AIS has migrated around 4 million of its 11 million 2G customers from its 900MHz network to AWN ahead of switching off its 900MHz service once the NBTC awards a 900MHz licence to one of the two bid winners for 900MHz licences, True Corp and Jasmine International.

Once one of them pays the first instalment of the licence fee upfront to NBTC’s telecom committee, the committee will convene to consider granting the licence.

Both winners are obliged to pay the first instalment by March 21.

True reportedly told a group of investors at a meeting on Friday that it had already installed some of its 900MHz network.

Some parties have reportedly lodged informal complaints with the NBTC about this, as True is yet to be granted the 900MHz licence.

True plans to spend Bt36 billion on the rollout of the 900MHz network to reach 16,000 sites nationwide in May before raising the total to 20,000 sites by the end of the year to provide 2G and 4G services.

As part of AIS’ efforts to prevent service disruption to its 2G customers after the 900MHz service switch-off, it reached the agreement with DTAC to allow it to roam 2G subscribers on DTAC’s 1800MHz network.

DTAC chief technology officer Prathet Tankuranun said the operator was willing to support AIS on this matter in order to create a collaborative atmosphere in the telecom industry.