The Taiwanese government is reportedly planning to conduct another LTE auction, this time for spectrum in the 2500-MHz and 2600-MHz bands.
The government wants to auction three spectrum blocks either at the end of 2014 or in early 2015, DigiTimesreported, citing regulator NCC and industry sources.
Up to 190-MHz of spectrum will be auctioned, with the allocation split into two lots of 70 MHz for FDD LTE services and one lot of 50 MHz of TD-LTE.
But 90-MHz of the frequency the government plans to auction is currently assigned to four Wimax operators. These companies' licenses are due to expire at the end of the year, but have options for extensions for six years.
Taiwan's new LTE licensees and at least some of the nation's existing Wimax operators are expected to participate.
Taiwan last year raised NT$118.65 billion ($3.89 billion) through the auction of 270-MHz of LTE spectrum in the 700-MHz, 900-MHz and 1800-MHz band. Six companies won licenses, including Chunghwa Telecom, Far EasTone, Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) and Taiwan Mobile.
Taiwan Mobile this month selected NSN as the sole supplier for its LTE network, while APT contracted Alcatel-Lucent to build an LTE overleay network that will support VoLTE.