Four consortia have submitted bids to land the 3G network build-out contract at TOT, the state-owned Thai operator. According to local newspaper, The Nation, the four bids have come from consortia known as AU (Alcatel Lucent and Ucom); SL (Samart, NSN and Huawei), the Forth CorpZTE consortium; and the Ericsson Associate Engineering (1964) consortium. The contract is thought to be worth around THB17.44 billion (US$570 million), making it the state-owned firm’s largest project for a decade. A source said Chinese supplier ZTE was likely to place the lowest bid. TOT is expected to take about one week to complete its examination of the bidders’ commercial and technical qualifications. It hopes to announce the qualified bidders next week and award the contracts in February.

Following the collapse of Thailand’s private 3G auctions last year, TOT is in the enviable (and controversial) position of being the only route for local operators to offer 3G services. It plans to build a wholesale 3G network and then rent capacity to MVNOs; according to reports this week, it already has five MVNO partners in place to resell 3G in the Bangkok area. Market-leader AIS has also previously been linked with an MVNO agreement. The wholesale network is to be deployed in greater Bangkok and 13 other major provinces within 180 days of the contract signing, and then extended nationwide within the following 360 days, the report says.