Thailand - Court heard witnesses in case to block spectrum auction, with the threat of further cases to come

[bangkok post] The Administrative Court has finished hearing a case filed by CAT Telecom against the National Telecommunications Commission seeking temporary suspension of the 3G licence auction scheduled to begin next Monday.

Jirayuth: Testified in closed-door session

The court did not hand down a ruling but will appoint a panel of judges to wrap up all inquiries before making a final judgement.

The judgement will be notified to each party by today or tomorrow.

Yesterday's hearing lasted more than two hours. CAT executives led by president Jirayuth Roongsrithong and the NTC testified separately in a closed-door session.

Before entering the chamber, Mr Jirayuth said CAT had no intention of delaying 3G technology development because it is also a supporter of the 3G trial services of DTAC and True Move.

"But we want clarity on the NTC's authority. We deem it a defiance of the constitution if it holds the auction for the 3G spectrum, which should be under the sole authority of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission," he said.

Mr Jirayuth said CAT would suffer a loss of revenue if there was no ruling by the court on the suspension of the auction.

It would also be unfair to future frequency allocations.

He said if the NTC went ahead with the auction, damages would be inflicted on investors who had paid licence fees and other expenses.

CAT is contemplating filing the case with the Constitution Court if its attempt at the Administrative Court fails.

In the defence session, two NTC commissioners, Col Natee Sukolrat and Sudharm Yoonaidharm, explained the auction procedure in detail. They insisted everything was done in compliance with laws and regulations.

After hearing testimony from both parties, the court said the ruling would be notified to them soon.

Meanwhile, TOT said it would file a similar case with the Administrative Court tomorrow seeking temporary suspension of the auction.

TOT board member Djitt Laowattana said the board had given its management freedom to bring the case to court.

Yesterday the Administrative Court rejected an earlier petition that TOT filed against the NTC for issuing an announcement on interconnection deals with DTAC and for imposing a fine of 60,000 baht a day for a violation of its order to interconnect their networks.

The court said the NTC's announcement was in conformity with the law and did not violate the constitution.

Court plans to appoint judge panel for 3G ruling