NTC grants new licences

The Nation (8 December 2007)

The board of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) yesterday approved licences for six telecom companies.

Secretary-general Suranan Wongvithayakamjorn said the board had granted a type-1 licence to both Easy System Telecom and GNA Enterprises (Pattaya 2005) to distribute international calling cards and to Network Enhanced Technology to offer call-forwarding.

A type-1 licence is for applicants without their own networks. The board also granted type-2 licences to both Triple T Global Net and Infonet Thailand and a type-3 licence to Loxley Wireless.

Type-2 licences are for applicants with or without their own networks whose influence on competition is expected to be limited, while type-3 licences are for applicants with their own large networks, such as the cellular operators, whose competition could have a significant effect on consumers.

Suranan said the licensing body wanted to finish awarding licences to the remaining applicants this month. Ten applications have still to be considered. The NTC has granted more than 140 licences since its establishment three years ago.