Thailand's cabinet has given green signal to a state-owned Company to invest around $650 million in a third-generation mobile-phone network project.

Chuti Krairiksh, who is the Information and Communication Technology Minister, said that as per the approval, TOT PCL will now be able to start its construction of 3G network. Chuti further said that the Company will take around six months to complete the job.

In order to challenge the authority of the National Telecommunications Commission’s decision to allocate the 2.1-gigahertz frequency spectrum used for 3G services, TOT and another state-owned Company, CAT Telecom, filed different petitions to the Central Administrative Court.

It is said that stopping the 3G licences auction will adversely affect the growth of Thailand's ICT-related businesses. The worst affected will be mobile applications development because of the lack of testbed network capability.

The 3G technology will be beneficial for rural people, where there is a shortage of experts. Through their mobile devices, they will be able to access learning content and tele-medicine services.

Companies like Advanced Info Service PCL, Total Access Communication, and True Corp. were supposed to participate in the license auction, but expressed their disappointment after the auction was cancelled at the last minute.