The board of state telecom enterprise National Telecom (NT) approved on Aug 9 the first phase of investment in a 26-gigahertz network installation project worth 800 million baht.
The state enterprise is expected to complete network installation by March 2024.
The first-phase investment is a part of a 6.7-billion-baht budget the cabinet previously approved for NT to invest in the business development of its 26GHz spectrum through the 14 years of the licence term.
Of the 6.7 billion baht in the budget, 5 billion baht is for the network investment, with the rest for operational costs.
According to NT president Col Sanphachai Huvanandana, NT management will start drafting terms of reference for the network procurement this month.
He said the procurement process is expected to finish by early next year, and the first phase of network expansion would be ready to provide the service by March 2024.
NT is the merged company of TOT and CAT Telecom. TOT won a licence for 200 megahertz of bandwidth on the 26GHz spectrum from a National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission auction in 2020 before the merger in 2021.
According to the project feasibility study, NT aims to have 438 enterprise customers in six years comprising 11 state units, 47 hospitals, 30 educational institutions, and 350 enterprises in the Eastern Economic Corridor.
Col Sanphachai said NT management will start drafting terms of reference for the network procurement this month.
NT wants to use the spectrum to provide the fixed-wireless access service and a campus network for manufacturers, ports, logistics operations and airports through the strength of private 5G network and solutions that will be designed to fit the enterprise demand.
NT expects return on investment at 28.7%, break-even in six years and six months, and economic return of 16%.
Col Sanphachai said NT will provide network connectivity to enterprises and corporates through its 26GHz together by utilising its 700MHz as core network.
Previously, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) chose to collaborate with NT on developing the 5G private network via the 26GHz.
NT signed a memorandum of understanding with three parties including WhiteSpace (The WSP), Delta Electronics (Thailand) and CHT for 5G private network cooperation in December 2021.
NT has joined forces with CHT to provide total smart solutions of 5G private network for enterprises to cash in on digital transformation in the country. The cooperation between NT and CHT follows NT's implementation of a 5G private network in the Bangpu Industrial plant of Delta Electronics (Thailand) as a project-based trial, assisting Delta in the global 5G smart factory layout planning, and completing the digital transformation.
Delta is also actively testing intelligent applications in factories. It is expected that the applications will be gradually introduced into new factories in the future.
