No 3G for Thailand Not Anytime Soon
September 23rd, 2010 by adminFor the millions of Thai people, foreign residents, and businesses that were waiting and hoping for updated mobile communication technology there will be no 3G in Thailand, at least not now and possibly not for several years.
On Thursday September 23, 2010 the Supreme Administrative Court put a hold on the 3G auction until the court case is over or the court’s order is changed. This is due to CAT’s lawsuit to stop the 3G auction. Quite a disappointment for millions of Thais hoping to at least have the higher quality mobile communication technology of their neighbors, Cambodia and Laos and a very frustrating turnaround for the high stakes bidders competing for the 3G licenses, AIS, DTAC, and True which all had paid 1.28 billion license deposit fee for the auction and sent representatives to prepare for the bidding process only to have it canceled a couple of days before the auction was scheduled to begin.
So for now, Thailand’s mobile communication technology will still lag behind all its SE Asian neighbors except for Burma which seems to make Thailand look like it cannot or does not want to progress. This is a terrible blow for the rural Thai people who needed this technology for their children and proper internet access and another blow to investor confidence.