Thailand's mobile market overview - Spectrum

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Disclaimer: While every reasonable effort is made to ensure accuracy of the information provided on this blog, no guarantees for the accuracy of information are made.

Spectrum. One of the fundamental elements for mobile services. In Thailand, the most populous band is located around 1800 MHz, as shown in the picture below. The "standard" spectrum configurations specified by 3GPP (a.k.a. E-UTRA Operating Bands) are shown in grey with band's number indicated. Thailand's spectrum assignments are shown in colors. The 1800 MHz band is used in Thailand for providing GSM services. DTAC has major portion of the spectrum, 2x49.6 MHz out of 2x75 MHz resource. True Move and Digital Phone Company (DPC, an AIS subsidiary) have 2x12.6 MHz, each. Note, again, that none of these operator is the owner of the spectrum. They are concessionaires of State Enterprise CAT Telecom. DTAC has been in a concession since 1991. The latter two companies started in 1997 and 1998, respectively.

Another band shown above is the noteworthy 2.1 GHz, the 3G spectrum. As 3G assignment process (assumably auction) has been repeatedly delayed, this band is quite well-known in newspapers. The band spans its downlink at 2100 MHz and its uplink at 1900 MHz. (It's a tradition to call a band from its downlink frequency, i.e. the highest frequency occupied.) Thai Mobile, fully owned by State Enterprise TOT, possesses 2x15 MHz bandwidth out of total 2x60 MHz capacity of this band. The rest 2x45 MHz spectrum is clear but will not be ready for auction unless the political and legal issues are resolved. Thai Mobile commercially launched 3G service, using portion of its 2.1 GHz spectrum, in Bangkok in December 2009. However, the impact to the market seems to be very limited to date.

Another crowded band is around 800-900 MHz. AIS is the only operator who has access to 900 MHz spectrum, offering both GSM900 (country wide) and UMTS900 (in selected hotspots) services. AIS occupies 2x17.5 MHz in 900 MHz under the concession of State Enterprise TOT since 1990. The other 3 operators are squeezed in 2x25 MHz in 850 MHz band under the concessions of State Enterprise CAT Telecom. Hutchison Telecom, with a partnership with CAT Telecom possesses around 2x10 MHz, True Move and DTAC, under CAT's concessions, have recently received the trial licenses to operate 3G/HSPA network on 850 MHz band. True Move has 2x5 MHz (or less, 2x4.8 MHz allowance, to be specific) and DTAC has 2x10 MHz. Trial licenses mean they cannot charge customers for the network usage. True Move was the first to offer this free trial service to its customers in 2008. However, the implementation turned out that while the data usage is free, voice calls are charged. And no one sues the mobile operator to date. DTAC conducted a small scale trial with a selected group of customers (reportedly around 2,000 individuals) and has recently announced to expand the trial in broader scale.

Historically, the 850 MHz was, in the earlier stage, separated in to two equal chunks of spectrum, 2x12.5 MHz each. CAT operated AMPS-A and DTAC operated AMPS-B. (AMPS-A/B band plans are not shown here.) Then, when the technology changed, CAT made a deal with Hutchison offering CDMA2000 service in AMPS-A spectrum, while DTAC didn't upgrade the technology. When 3G came,  True Move made its way to acquire a chunk of 2x5 MHz spectrum in the middle and DTAC was pushed to the side. True Move offered iPhone (the device supports 3G in 850 MHz) the day it launched 3G service in 850 MHz (via trial license). It's a True Move's good move, isn't it?