Jas later defaulted on the initial instalment of the upfront fee for the band, and thereby lost the right to obtain the licence.

AWN sent a confidential letter on the matter to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission office yesterday. The NBTC board will consider the AWN proposal today.

It will also consider the schedule for a new auction for the licence.

If the NBTC agrees with its proposal, AWN will hold a shareholders’ meeting to ask for approval to buy the licence, but it could take two months to arrange such a meeting.

AWN also proposed to the NBTC that while waiting for the shareholders’ approval, the regulator should consider allowing AIS to continue serving its subscribers on the 900-megahertz band until AWN obtains the licence.

AIS recently asked the NBTC to extend the deadline for switching off its second-generation cellular service on the 900MHz band from April 14 to June 30, citing the need for more time to migrate the remaining subscribers to other networks.

The telecom committee plans to hold a new auction for the 900MHz licence on June 24.

It set the minimum starting bid at Bt75.654 billion, which was Jas’s winning bid in December.

An NBTC source said the commission might have to ask for permission from the government to call in AWN for negotiations on buying the licence at the Jas price.

If AWN were to change its mind and decline to buy it at that price, the NBTC would call in Total Access Communication subsidiary DTAC TriNet, and then TrueMove H Universal Communication (TUC) of True Corp.

At the December auction, AWN’s final bid for Slot 2 of the licence packages up for grabs was Bt75.976 billion, while that of DTAC for Slot 1 was Bt70.180 billion. TUC proposed Bt73.72 billion for Slot 1 before it switched to compete for Slot 2 and won by bidding Bt76.3 billion.

AIS had operated its 2G service on Slot 1 before the NBTC reclaimed it for auction. Jas Mobile won this slot but failed to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee.

AIS has 8.2 million 2G subscribers, of whom 7.8 million are on AWN but still roam with AIS’s 900MHz network.

Earlier the NBTC telecom committee ordered AIS to shut down the service on March 15 at midnight but the company sought a Central Administrative Court injunction against the order.

The court granted the injunction to compel the telecom committee to allow AIS to continue using 900MHz until April 14.

Thailand Development Research Institute president Somkiat Tangkivanich said the regulator should quickly call a new auction of this 900MHz band.

As long as it delays the bid, the spectrum’s value is estimated to decline by Bt5 billion per year on average. He added that holding off until June was still too slow, as it would affect the existing 900MHz subscribers.

Somkiat said that if a private telecom operator could reach a partnership with a state agency to offer a service jointly on that state agency’s spectrum, the private operator might decide not to enter the new auction of the 900MHz licence. If there is no meaningful competition at the auction, the outcome is likely to be a lower final price.

AIS recently signed a memorandum of understanding with TOT to provide 3G cellular on the state agency’s 2.1-gigahertz band on a non-commercial trial basis.

Somkiat disagreed with the NBTC plan to keep the 900MHz band for one year in the case that no one joins the new auction, as the spectrum’s value would gradually decline. One way out of this dilemma is for the commission to see if any of the unsuccessful bidders at the previous auction is willing to pay what Jas bid for it in December, as long as no other party opposes such a payment.

He added that it was within the NBTC’s purview to realise the optimal use of the spectrum for the maximum public interest.

Meanwhile, a consumer-protection network yesterday asked the licensing body to review its resolution to keep the 900MHz band for one year if no one joins the new auction. The group said this would amount to a delay of the use of this precious spectrum.

In addition, the schedule to hold the new auction in June means the NBTC will fail to deal with the shutdown of AIS’s 900MHz service on April 15, which will affect its 2G subscribers on that spectrum.

The group will submit its ideas to the NBTC today.