Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) has reportedly granted Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) a 4G operating licence, allowing it to offer mobile services over the 700MHz band. Earlier this month the watchdog was said to have granted the operator a block of one million mobile numbers that can be used for its LTE-based service. According to the China Post, APT submitted its application for the operating concession on 8 October 2014, with the regulator approving it just yesterday, and the cellco now has six months to begin offering commercial 4G services.

As previously reported by CommsUpdate, back in July 2014 the NCC was said to have issued a permit to APT allowing it to move forward with the construction of its proposed 4G network. At the same date it was confirmed that Ambit Microsystems, a subsidiary of the Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai) had also received a network construction concession. Earlier that month it had been confirmed that APT and Ambit would merge via a share swap deal. September 2014 saw the NCC confirm it had still yet to make a decision regarding the proposed merger, however.

Meanwhile, according to this latest report, in addition to the rollout of its own infrastructure by vendors Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, APT will also partner with Taiwan Mobile Company to share network resources. This tie-up, it is claimed, will enable APT to offer greater coverage at launch.