Regulator slashes licence fees

Adjustment hoped to encourage competition

The telecom regulator’s board yesterday approved halving operating licence fees for telecom companies to encourage competition and strengthen small and mediumsized companies.

The new operating fees will help reduce operating costs for telecom players in the market and promote healthy competition.

The adjustment of licence fees also paves the way to promote newcomers to the industry, along with digital economy development such as Internet of Things (IoT) providers.

National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) secretarygeneral Takorn Tantasith said the NBTC has studied the new structure of operating fees for telecom companies for a year, as part of the regulatory road map to support telecoms businesses.

Telecom operators who hold NBTC’s licences have to pay licence fees in two categories, operating fee and universal service obligation (USO) fee.

The new operating fee structure will be effective end of this year, and will impose a fee rate of 0.125% of total revenue for operators who earn revenue up to 100 million baht a year, 0.25% for total revenue of 100500 million baht, 0.5% of 500 million to 1 billion total revenue, 0.75% of 1-5 billion total revenue, and 1% for total revenue over 5 billion baht.

All telecom operators have to continue paying the USO fee at the existing rate of 2.5% of total revenue.

The new operating fee structure will not significantly effect the NBTC, Mr Takorn said.

“Although the new fee structure will generate less revenue to the NBTC, it will very much help small and medium-sized businesses survive intense competitive market,” he said.

He said the new operating fee structure will also promote new players in telecom business who provide digital services such as IoT related services.

Previously, the NBTC board officially approved the allocation of the 920-925 megahertz spectrum for IoT use.

NBTC said IoT service providers will be easily regulated under the internet service licence because IoT-enabled applications and devices require the internet to operate. Therefore companies who are interested in providing IoT services have to hold an internet licence approved by NBTC.

NBTC is considering setting a new operating fee for broadcast licences, which will be addressed next year.

The NBTC board yesterday approved a result of the 13 billion baht USO project that was auctioned on Aug 1-2. The 13 billion baht project aims to construct fibre-optic networks in 3,920 border villages to create infrastructure to bridge the digital divide in remote areas.