AWN submitted the bid documents to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) yesterday and placed the required two bank guarantees worth a combined Bt3.783 billion, issued by Kasikornbank and Bangkok Bank respectively.

“I am very happy that AIS came to submit the bid documents today [yesterday]. Our job is done,” said the NBTC secretary-general, Takorn Tantasith, yesterday, the only day the watchdog would receive the bid application.

AIS’ share price yesterday slid 1.57 per cent, closing at Bt157 per share.

The NBTC will announce the qualified bidder on May 23 and launch the re-auction on May 27 at 9am. The licence term is 15 years.

The NBTC decided to re-auction the licence after Jasmine International’s subsidiary, Jas Mobile Broadband, failed to pay the initial payment upfront for the licence, which it won in an auction last December. The starting bid price in the re-auction is Bt75.6 billion, the final price Jas bid for the licence.

Under the rules, the NBTC will hold the re-auction even if there is only one bidder. Once the bidding starts, the bidder would first be required to confirm the starting price. After that, if it stands by the price, the bidding will end.

Takorn said he would ask the NBTC telecom panel to convene after the re-auction ends to consider endorsing the bid outcome. After the endorsement, the winner will have to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee of Bt8.04 billion and place three bank guarantees on the remaining upfront fee within 90 days. Takorn believes cash-rich AIS would pay the first instalment before the deadline.

AWN and True Corp had picked up the bid documents, but True sent a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Monday, informing the bourse of its board resolution that the company would not participate in the re-auction as it already has a very comprehensive spectrum portfolio with sufficiently large bandwidth totalling 55MHz.

True Group had already grabbed a 900MHz licence at the last auction in December with a bid of Bt76.3 billion.

Total Access Communication (DTAC) was the first telecom operator to announce that it would not join the re-auction. The company announced its decision last month

Meanwhile, the NBTC will finalise by May 28 the additional amount of damages it will seek from Jas for failing to fulfil the initial payment of the licence upfront fee.

The watchdog has already seized the Bt644-million bank guarantee placed by Jas. However, the company has insisted that it will not be liable for any additional compensation since the NBTC auction terms did not require the auction winner be responsible for any additional compensation, apart from the auction deposit of Bt 644 million.