NEW DEHLI, India—The Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT) will call for fresh bids for its CDMA mobile-phone expansion project next month, following withdrawal by SBP Holding, the sole bidder in the last round.
The state-owned mobile operator is also planning to reduce the size of the network that was planned earlier. The CAT had selected SBP Holding earlier this year for the project when it proposed to construct the CDMA network in the provinces and lease it to the state agency for 15 years at a total cost of 29.9 billion baht (US$671 million). But SBP withdrew after the transparency of the bidding and the viability of CDMA technology were questioned.
Now the authority says it would go ahead with the expansion project by calling new bids. The leasing period under the new arrangement might also be shorter than 15 years. CAT officials said the agency had no policy to allow private operators to manage the network.
