True Move, Jasmine bringing 4G LTE to Thailand

Each carrier will operate 10 megahertz in the 900 MHz band for provisioning 4G LTE services

Thai mobile operators True Move and Jasmine both won licenses to operate spectrum in the 900 MHz band; and each of the winning telcos obtained a block of 10 megahertz, which will be used to support LTE services.

The government obtained THB 151.8bn ($4.2 billion) with the spectrum auction, which was completed after 199 rounds.

Mobile operators Dtac, owned by European telecoms group Telenor, and AIS took part in the auction, but failed to obtain spectrum. Dtac CEO Lars Norling said the operator will focus on the developments of its existing 850 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.1 GHz networks.

After the latest spectrum auction, True Move emerged as the operator with the highest amount of available spectrum. The telco now controls 15 megahertz in the 2.1 GHz band, 15 megahertz in the 1800 MHz band, 10 megahertz of 900 MHz and 15 megahertz in the 850 MHz band.

Last month, True Move and AIS obtained licenses in the 1800 MHz band. True will pay THB 39.79 billion for its 30 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 1710-1725/1805-1820 MHz bands, and AIS will pay THB 40.99 billion for its 30 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 1725-1740/1820-1835 MHz bands.

According to auction rules, license holders will be required to cover 40% of the country’s population with LTE services within the next four years and 50% within eight years.

In related news, Jasmine CEO Pete Bhodaramik said the company expects to reach 10% market share within the next five years. The operator aims to attract 2 million mobile subscribers in the first year of operation of its 900 MHz spectrum and expects to deploy 20,000 cell sites across Thailand. The carrier said it might contract two vendors for the network deployment.

Bhodaramik also said the telco will partner with a state-owned operator for the use of additional mobile infrastructure, but declined to provide further details on this issue. Jasmine already offers broadband services across Thailand and has approximately 6,000 employees and 300 shops.