Taiwan plans to issue 4G licenses in 2013, two years ahead of schedule

According to Taiwan Economic News, the Taiwan government plans to issue 4G licenses in 2013, two years earlier than originally planned in 2015. The licenses will follow the principle of technology neutrality, although local operators are expected to insist on deploying LTE after experiencing many difficulties in launching WiMAX.

The Taiwanese "government" originally planned to issue 4G licenses in July 2015 after reclaiming the GSM wireless spectrum, which expired in June 2015. In addition to the GSM spectrum, the local "government" will also provide spectrum in the 700MHz or 2.6GHz band.

The 700MHz spectrum is currently controlled by the military, and the 2.6GHz spectrum has not yet been allocated, but it is expected that operators will prefer those lower frequency bands because they can help deploy rural coverage at a lower cost.