Thailand’s telecoms regulator threatened to recall spectrum from troubled TOT after the state-owned enterprise failed to articulate its mobile broadband plans for the 2.3GHz band.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) gave TOT 90 days to resubmit its business plan after rejecting the first draft, which it criticised as lacking basic elements, such as a network deployment plan, a timetable for commercial launch and a clear roadmap for spectrum planning and usage, the Bangkok Post reported.

The newspaper quoted NBTC commissioner Prawit Leesathapornwongsa as saying: “If TOT fails to come up with a clear business plan in November, we might consider recalling some of its bandwidth on the 2.3GHz band.”

The operator, which received approval to use 64MHz on that band in October 2015, has two years to launch service – its deadline is October 2017.

Prawit said it took TOT almost a year to draft a four-page business plan, which wasn’t well organised and failed to outline planning for management and operations, the Post reported.

He criticised the operator’s proposal to use 60MHz in the 2.3GHz band to launch mobile broadband service, with the aim of having 100,000 subscribers in the first year under a wholesale-resale model in partnership with a private operator.

Meanwhile, TOT is in talks with four foreign operators about a strategic partnership to develop its fixed-line broadband service. The potential partners include China Telecom as well as another operator from China, one from Japan and one from Indonesia.