On Monday, the Bhutan InfoComm and Media Authority signed a memorandum of understanding with Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunica-tions Commission for cooperation in telecommunications and broadcasting.
The signing, which took place at the four-day “ITU Telecom World” event that began in Bangkok on Monday, marks the first such cooperation between the two countries.
Dasho Karma Wanchuk Penjor, secretary of Bhutan’s Information and Communications Ministry, said his country was taking the step to develop the telecom and broadcasting industry to cope with new technology.
Bhutan’s government has |awarded two mobile-phone-service licences, one to the state-run Bhutan Telecom (B-Mobile) and the other to Tashi InfoComm (TashiCell).
They both provide second-, third- and fourth-generation services on the 800-megahertz and 2.1-gigahertz spectra.
Bhutan has only 779,000 people and the two operators have already reached 90-per-cent penetration. B-Mobile has 445,000 users while TashiCell has 250,000.
Per the two-year agreement, Thailand and Bhutan will cooperate in spectrum management, monitoring and licensing of radio communications, broadcasting and telecom regulations, consumer protection and dispute resolution, promotion of technical innovation, and international cooperation, especially under the International Telecommunica-tion Union and the Asia-Pacific Framework.
Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the NBTC, said the commission would share with Bhutan its insight gained from auctioning frequencies and its plan to expand cellular services.
The NBTC plans to auction the 1,800MHz band and reallocate the 700MHz band for mobile services after successfully auctioning 1,800MHz and 900MHz licences, which brought in Bt232.67 billion in fees.