Thailand's True Move has revealed plans to spend 56 billion baht ($1.56 billion) this year to launch the nation's first LTE-Advanced network.
The operator plans to aggregate its 900-MHz and 1800-MHz spectrum for an LTE-A network covering 97% of the population, the Bangkok Postreported.
As part of the rollout the company plans to install 13,500 LTE-A base stations on the 900-MHz band in rural areas and 3,000 to 4,000 base stations on the 1800-MHz band in Bangkok and other major population centers.
Huawei and Ericsson are providing the equipment and software for the rollout. True Move is also currently negotiating to rent state-owned operator TOT's 900-MHz 2G infrastructure to re-purpose for the LTE-A network, the report states.
With the launch the operator aims to double its 4G customer base to 4 million this year.
True Move recently emerged victorious in a hotly-contested 900-MHz auction, agreeing to pay 76.29 billion baht for a 10 MHz block of spectrum. The operator now has the most spectrum of all the nation's mobile operators.