The orders are being issued under the special powers granted by Article 44 of the interim charter imposed by the junta after it took over in 2014.

The minimum starting bid will be Bt75.654 billion, the price for which Jas Mobile Broadband won licence at the previous auction in December but defaulted last month by failing to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee.

All existing mobile operators, including True Corp, which won a licence at the last auction, will be allowed to bid. Jas will not.

The NCPO was expected to make the formal announcement late yesterday.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said there were two parts to the NCPO order – the holding of the auction, and a memorandum of understanding between Advanced Info Service and True Corp.

According to the NBTC source, under the MoU, AIS can roam some of its 900MHz users with True Move H Communication Universal Service (TUC) during the extension period of the 2G-900MHz service. TUC’s own 2G service will be officially launched on Friday.

Meanwhile, the 900MHz licence period of TUC will be extended to end at the same time as the new licence from the new auction. TUC got the licence on March 16. Currently the licence period is 15 years.

“This is the final solution that all relevant parties are discussing today. This should end all conflicts between the two operators and create fair competition for the industry. It will be a happy ending for all,” Takorn said.

AIS and True have disputes on many issues and both have filed complaints with the NBTC and the government about the 900MHz issue and the new auction.

TUC yesterday sent an urgent letter to the NBTC, and Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Kreangam, against the AIS plan to extend the switch-off plan of its 900MHz service from April 14 to June 30.

According to True, its new 2G network is ready to serve all existing 900MHz subscribers as it has installed 22,000 base stations nationwide, covering the same number of users as the existing AIS network.

True suggested that the NBTC could give more time to AIS users to move to its and other networks. It said AIS had overstated its claim that around 7.8 million users would be affected from the shutdown of the service on Thursday. In True’s view only 480,000 users on the AIS network would be affected as the other 7.4 million are on AIS’s subsidiary, Advanced Wireless Network.

AIS had earlier announced that it would roam them with Total Access Communication (DTAC) and would make more investments to serve them.

True said that if AIS is allowed to keep using the spectrum, the NBTC should consider paying compensation to True on the amount that it will charge AIS for using the band during the extension period.

True won the licence for Bt76.3 billion.

True also asked the Central Administration Court to allow it to testify as an interpleader in the case whereby AIS had sought an injunction to order the NBTC to allow AIS to extend the 2G-900MHz service cut-off date from April 14 to June 30.

Earlier, AIS won a court extension for switching off the service, from March 15 to April 14.

The NBTC reallocated AIS’s 900MHz bandwidth last December after the company’s concession on that spectrum with TOT expired in September.

The NBTC had ordered AIS to shut down its 900MHz service in the middle of last month after the awarding the licence to TUC.

The Administration Court is expected to deliver its verdict today after the NCPO issued an order on the issue.