Thailand\'s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has announced new details of its plan to auction additional 4G mobile licenses, TeleGeography reports citing TelecomAsia, in a three-stage auction to begin by September 2015.

The NBTC said it will redistribute 92.5 MHz of spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands, previously issued to the private sector under build-transfer-operate (BTO) concessions that expire in the next few years.

The first auction is planned for 25 MHz of 1800 MHz spectrum previously used by True Move (True Corp) and DPC (AIS), this March, followed by a November auction of 17.5 MHz of 900 MHz spectrum currently in use by AIS, and finally a September 2015 auction of 50 MHz of 1800 MHz spectrum – partially being used by DTAC.

All licenses are expected to be technology-neutral, with the winners being allocated their spectrum once BTO concessions expire. For the AIS 900 MHz spectrum, this is March 2015, while DTAC\'s concession is set to end at the beginning of 2018.

The NBTC added that it had considered bundling all these spectrums into a package bid, but was dissuaded by possible legal challenges regarding the different expiry dates for BTO concessions. Operators will be able to participate in all three auctions, although the regulator plans to set individual caps on their spectrum allotments.