Thai telecoms operators TOT and AIS formalised a spectrum sharing agreement for the market leader to use the state-owned enterprise’s 2.1GHz spectrum to launch commercial service, Bangkok Post reported.

AIS will pay TOT THB3.9 billion ($119 million) a year to use 80 per cent of its 2.1GHz spectrum. AIS will also pay to rent TOT’s towers and 2G equipment. Separate contracts for those rental agreements are expected to be signed later in the year.

TOT can run its own mobile services on the remaining spectrum and also can use AIS’s 16,000 2.1GHz base stations. TOT plans to rebrand its mobile business on the 2.1GHz band from TOT 3G to TOT Mobile by June and aims to increase its subscriber base from 100,000 to 3 million by 2020, the newspaper said.

The two companies have run trial services on the 2.1GHz band since July 2016 as they awaited approval from the government, which came in November.

TOT also received approval from the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission late in 2017 to allow dtac, the country’s third largest operator, to launch LTE service on 60MHz of 2.3GHz spectrum held by TOT.