The cabinet has approved National Telecom's (NT) 5G business project and operational expenditure of 6.7 billion baht to capitalise on the 26-gigahertz spectrum range during the period until the spectrum licence expires in 2036.
The cabinet gave its approval on Tuesday, said Seikson Mitkasem, senior executive vice-president for marketing and products at NT.
NT, which was formed through the merger of CAT Telecom and TOT in 2021, expects the consolidation of various units, including service centres, marketing channels, backup systems and mobile services, from the two state enterprises, to be completed by next year.
TOT secured 200MHz of bandwidth on the 26GHz band in the 5G spectrum auction in 2020.
NT aims to provide 5G technology on the 26GHz range for 438 organisations, comprising 11 state agencies, 47 hospitals, 30 educational institutions and 350 enterprises in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), over the next six years, said Mr Seikson.
NT will provide fixed wireless access for enterprises as well as private 5G network and solutions for manufacturers, ports, logistics facilities and airports in line with their demand, he said.
The project is expected to deliver a return on investment of 28.7% and reach break-even in six years and six months.
It has been estimated that this would add an economic value of 263 million baht on average per year, said Mr Seikson.
NT submitted details of the adjusted conditions of its 5G business project leveraging the 700MHz range to the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) following the council's request.
He said the firm is awaiting the council's approval.
NT president Col Sanphachai Huvanandana earlier said the company set a timeline for its 5G service on the 700MHz range to start for the mass market in April this year.
NT earlier picked leading mobile operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) as its business partner for the 700MHz business.
No agreement has been signed yet, as the deal still needs to pass the NESDC's vetting process and be acknowledged by the cabinet.
NT obtained the 700MHz spectrum licence through CAT Telecom, which participated in the 5G spectrum licence auction held in 2020.
Mr Seikson said NT is in a transitional period of merging resources in terms of networks, services and workforce from both TOT and CAT Telecom.
Overseas call services with 007 and 008 prefixes provided by TOT have been terminated while only the 001 and 009 prefixes offered by CAT Telecom continue to be still in service.
The move is aimed at reducing redundancy and costs following the merger of the two state enterprises.
The call centre number for NT's services is 1888 while TOT's 1100 and CAT Telecom's 1322 have now been terminated.
NT has reduced the number of customer service centres by 50 since its establishment in 2021. It now has 487 service centres countrywide.
NT operates mobile services on the 2100MHz and 2300MHz spectrum ranges obtained from TOT as well as the 850Mhz range from CAT Telecom, said Mr Seikson. It still runs the services of the two individual brands and work is currently underway to integrate them into a single brand.
"Time is needed to settle the integration of all backup operations and billing systems," he said.
