Thailand’s long-anticipated 3G auction will not see any new overseas players bidding, with the country’s top-three existing operators heading the list, Reuters reports.

The country’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is set to offer 45MHz worth of frequencies, in a process starting next week.

Nine allocations of 5MHz will be available, with each bidder limited to 15MHz. The starting price is US$146 million per batch.

According to Reuters, market leader AIS (a SingTel affiliate), number two placed TAC (controlled by Telenor) and True Corp will all bid through subsidiary companies.

Earlier reports said that the highest bidders will get the first pick of the available frequencies, which are in the widely-deployed 2.1GHz band for 3G.

Ratings agency Fitch has said that the cost of acquiring spectrum, and subsequent network build costs, are unlikely to have a negative impact on the ratings of the top operators.

The frequencies had been due for issue as far back as 2010, but were delayed by concerns over the legitimacy of the then regulator the National Telecommunications Commission.