With Taiwan's big three operators all having launched LTE services over the past few days, regulator NCC has announced it will allow the nation's cellcos to upgrade existing 3G customers to 4G.
The regulator has completed the amendments required to extend mobile number portability to 4G customers, and submitted the upgrade bill to Taiwan's Executive Yuan, China Postreported.
Operators will now likely able to offer customers under existing 3G contracts the option to upgrade to 4G using their existing numbers by Wednesday, and to switch carriers to a 4G plan while keeping their number by as early as Monday.
The NCC has stipulated that the upgrade process must not require more than one business day to conduct.
The policy change has had to be rushed through because Taiwan's major mobile operators have launched LTE ahead of schedule. Chunghwa Telecom lit its network last Thursday, and Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone have both gone live this week.
Another recent winner of the recent $4b 4G auction, Taiwan Star, plans to launch services in the third quarter.
But the NCC has yet to approve the charter license of Hon Hai affiliate Ambit Microsystems, which has revealed plans to acquire a stake in Asia-Pacific Telecom with the goal of taking over the business.