Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) has reconfirmed plans to release the 2500MHz and 2600MHz frequency bands for the provision of 4G services, the Taipei Times reports, with a spectrum auction now expected to take place at the end of the third quarter of 2015. NCC chairman Howard Shyr was cited as saying that the commission will conduct an information session next month in which it will set out the rules of the auction, among other things, while also providing operators an opportunity to offer feedback on the plans.
With some of the frequencies in question currently in use by WiMAX operators, the official noted that such providers would be able to continue using these should their licenses be renewed. In regards to this, Shyr noted that First International Telecom (Fitel) and Far EasTone Telecommunications have both already terminated WiMAX offerings and returned portions of the spectrum they used to the government, while Tatung Infocomm’s WiMAX license renewal has already been turned down by the NCC. Looking ahead, the NCC is reportedly planning to review the license renewal applications from three other WiMAX operators this year, those being Global Mobile, VMAX Telecom and Vee Telecom.
As per the NCC’s plans, it has identified a total of 190MHz to be auctioned off across the two bands in question, with 50MHz to be reserved for use with Time Division LTE (TD-LTE) technology, with the remaining 140MHz used with Frequency Division LTE (FD-LTE) technology. Meanwhile, the regulator will reportedly set a lock-up period in which operators will be required to first fulfil their service commitments before being allowed to merge operations with another provider.
