Thaicom informs plan for business licence


From www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Thaico...icence-30171093.html

Thaicom has informed the broadcast regulator that it plans to apply for a business licence to provide a joint service on the AsiaSat 7 satellite of Hong Kong's Asia Satellite Telecommunication.

Last Saturday the two satellite operators reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding on joint service provision and a plan to jointly draw the AsiaSat 7 satellite to the 120 degrees east longitude orbital slot.

They are expected to sign a contract once they get the business licence.

Settapong Malisuwan, a member of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, said yesterday that Thaicom had told the NBTC that it was preparing to apply for the licence.

Thaicom yesterday declined to comment.

Satellite service operators need a Type 3 licence. They will pay 2 per cent of their revenue and a fee for a radio frequency to control the satellite.

AsiaSat 7 was launched late last week. Thaicom and AsiaSat will draw the satellite from its current 105.5 degrees east orbital slot to the 120 degrees east slot reserved by Thailand.

The Information and Communications Technology Ministry wants to maintain the right to reserve that slot, which expires next month.

Settapong said the satellite business in Thailand under the Frequency Allocation Act needed two frequencies - a radio frequency for satellite control and a frequency for uplink-downlink.

Satellite operators do not have to bid for the radio frequency, but customers within Thailand have to bid for the frequency to uplink and downlink their satellite content in Thailand. This cost is in addition to the cost of leasing satellite transponders to beam their programmes.

The NBTC is expected to complete the spectrum management master plan in April and start auctioning new spectrum licences by the end of next year.

The frequency law does not apply to Thaicom-owned satellites, which come under an ICT Ministry concession that runs to 2021. Thaicom is expected launch the Thaicom 6 broadcasting satellite in the second quarter of 2013.

IPSTAR

An NBTC source said that if Thaicom's iPSTAR broadband satellite is ruled as not included in Thaicom's concession, it might fall under the frequency law.

This suggests that local customers of the satellite will be required to bid for spectrum licences in order to uplink-downlink their programmes.

The question of whether iPSTAR is part of Thaicom's concession springs from the Supreme Court's ruling in February 2010 on the assets-seizure case against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The Thaksin Cabinet allowed Thaicom to change its concession terms to launch iPSTAR as its main satellite, rather than orbit a back-up satellite for Thaicom 3.

Thaicom still has to talk with the ICT Ministry on the plan, which was acknowledged by the previous Cabinet, to rectify Thaicom's concession amendments by having it resume its original concession conditions.