Satellite orbital slots tabbed for Q1 2025

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) plans to allocate the two unsold rights to use the 51° East and 142°E orbit slots in the first quarter of next year.
NBTC commissioner Somphop Purivigraipong, who oversees the telecom sector, said the regulator is accelerating the announcement of its allocation plan for the two orbits in December this year.
Mr Somphop said the country’s right to use the 51°E orbit still has more than four years left, while the right to the 142°E orbit has one year left.
On Oct 7 earlier this year, the NBTC office held bidding for the rights to three orbit slots: 50.5°E, 51°E and 142°E.
TC Space Connect, a subsidiary of SET-listed Thaicom, was the sole company to submit a bid proposal to acquire all three slots.
However, NBTC awarded the company a licence for only the 50.5°E slot, noting the details of the proposal for the 51°E and 142°E slots did not align with the regulator’s requirements.
TC Space Connect proposed that if it was awarded the licences for the 51°E and 142°E orbits, it would transfer the rights to a future company to be established within the Thaicom group.
According to Mr Somphop, the company did not give a reason why the rights to use the two orbits need to be transferred and operated by another company.
He said the awarding method of the orbit slots will be a combination of direct awarding and a beauty contest, the same method used in the October bid.
Under the method, when scoring the proposals NBTC gives 40% weight to the bidder’s readiness to keep the right to use such orbital slots, followed by 25% for the bidder’s experience.
Matters related to finance and details of financial guarantees to use the orbital rights are worth 20%, and the return rate to the state is weighted 15%.