CAT acting president Surapant Meknavin said the board on Tuesday declined to approve the existing plan but instead asked management to come up with more options on how much network capacity CAT would lease to DTAC to provide the service.

Surapant said the board wanted to maximise the benefit to CAT from the deal with DTAC.

The board will consider any new proposal at its next meeting.

After the board approves the plan, CAT will submit it to the minister of information and communications technology and the Cabinet for consideration. If all goes as planned, CAT is expected to launch the 4G service with DTAC in fourth quarter, he said.

Under the existing plan, CAT was to lease 85 per cent of the currently idle 20MHz to DTAC and the rest to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). DTAC would also have to provide 9,500 base stations to service this project until 2018.

The more the project is delayed, the greater will be the impact on CAT’s quest for new revenue sources, Surapant said.

CAT previously awarded a concession to DTAC to operate 50MHz of the 1,800MHz spectrum, of which half is being used. Later the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission combined 5MHz of the unused band with other portions of the 1,800MHz spectrum for auction late last year. Then the NBTC allowed CAT and DTAC to upgrade the remaining 20MHz idle band jointly until 2018.