It took about 35 minutes for Advanced Wireless Network (AWN), the lone bidder, to grab the licence simply by confirming it would pay the minimum price of Bt75.6 billion.

The “bidding” started at 9.30am, and the telecom committee of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) endorsed the outcome the same day.

AIS chief executive officer Somchai Lertsutiwong said the competition in the mobile-phone market would mean better service for customers and tapping the new Internet of Things segment or machine to machine communication.

AIS has targeted 10 million customers on its fourth-generation network by the end of this year, up from around 7 million at the present, he said.

True Corp has targeted between 6 million and 7 million 4G customers by the end of the year, up from 4 million last year. Total Access Communication (DTAC) aims to have 6 million 4G customers at the end of this year, up from around 3.1 million at the present.

Somchai said that initially AIS would deploy the 900-megahertz spectrum to serve its 250,000 2G users. Clinching the 900MHz licence will also enable AIS to widen its 4G service coverage quickly to 80 per cent of population by the end of this year, instead of 50 per cent as previously planned.

As this 900MHz band is adjacent to DTAC’s 850MHz band, 2.5MHz of the 10MHz AIS has acquired on the 900MHz spectrum should technically be reserved as a buffer to prevent interference. Somchai said AIS would invest in equipment to enable the company to utilise the full 10MHz. AIS will also talk with DTAC to address this issue.

Somchai said AIS had not revised its 2016 capital-expenditure budget but had maintained it at Bt40 billion.

He said the total regulatory cost of AWN from licences to the 2.1-gigahertz, 1,800MHz and now 900MHz spectra stood at Bt8 billion per year. This is far lower than the Bt20-billion annual fee AIS had paid to TOT during the concession period, which ended last September.

Under the auction rules, AWN has to pay the first instalment of the upfront licence fee of Bt8.04 billion and provide three bank guarantees worth Bt67.614 billion within 90 days or by the deadline of August 24.

Hui Weng Cheong, AIS chief operating officer, said AWN would fulfil these conditions before June 30.

After AWN’s auction win yesterday, AIS holds 15MHz of the 2.1GHz spectrum, 15MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum, and now 10MHz of 900MHz, all under NBTC licences.

AIS is set to sign several deals with TOT as part of a planned partnership to offer 3G service on the state agency’s 15MHz on the 2.1GHz band.

True boasts a total of 55MHz bandwidth, comprising 15MHz of the 2.1GHz spectrum, 15MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum, and 10MHz of the 900MHz spectrum. It has also formed a partnership with CAT to offer 3G service on 15MHz of CAT’s 850MHz spectrum.

DTAC has a bandwidth portfolio totalling 50MHz, consisting of 15MHz on the 2.1GHz spectrum, 10MHz on 850MHz and 25MHz on 1,800MHz.

The latter two were granted under a CAT Telecom concession that will expire in late 2018.

Moreover, DTAC is in talks with CAT on the possibility of jointly utilising the state agency’s idle 20MHz on the 1,800MHz spectrum to offer 4G service.

NBTC secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the next spectrum to be put to auction would 2.6GHz, which is now being used by MCOT. However, the commission has to wait for the new NBTC law, which will allow it to reclaim spectra from state agencies and pay them compensation.

Another band to be put to auction is 45MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum, of which 25MHz is currently being used by DTAC under the CAT Telecom concession, and which will expired on September 30, 2018. But that auction might have to wait for the new NBTC, as its term will expire on October 7 next year.

According to the NBTC, the value of the 1,800MHz spectrum will be Bt2.692 billion per megahertz, calculated from the total value of more than Bt80 billion the commission gained from auctioning two 1,800MHz licences totalling 30MHz last year.

The telecom committee will meet again on Wednesday to consider its damage claim against Jas Mobile Broadband.

Last December, that company won the 900MHz licence re-auctioned yesterday but lost the right to use it after failing to pay the first instalment of the upfront fee.