MCOT’s plea to import equipment raises doubts
MCOT recently asked the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission for permission to import equipment that it will use in cooperation with True Corp and Advanced Info Service to operate wireless services on its portion of the 2.6 gigahertz spectrum. But a telecom analyst was doubtful about whether the move reflects another bid by operators to seek extra bandwidth at a lower cost than they might face under a new round of spectrum auctions. Last October, MCOT requested permission to import Huawei cellular base stations that are compatible with the 2.6GHz spectrum the NBTC office permitted MCOT to import 30 base stations. Agreements reached. Last November, MCOT again sought permission to import more Huawei base stations. It also asked the NBTC to grant it the network code used for conducting telecommunication systems.
