Taiwan’s 4G user base hit 8.66 million in August after adding 730,000 LTE connections that month, according to the National Communications Commission (NCC).

4G connections now account for 27 per cent of all mobile connections in the country, which has five 4G operators. The three largest players launched LTE services in May 2014.

The country’s operators expect to have more than 11 million 4G connections, representing a third of total connections, by the end of the year, DigiTimes reported.

Chunghwa Telecom is the 4G market leader with 3.27 million LTE connections, for almost a 38 per cent market share. Far EasTone Telecommunications is number two with 2.4 million connections and a 28 per cent share, followed by Taiwan Mobile (26 per cent), Asia Pacific Telecom (5 per cent) and Taiwan Star Telecom (2.8 per cent).

After Taiwan Star launched low-cost 4G service in August 2014, the industry has seen at least two rounds of 4G price cuts as the players moved aggressively to expand their customer bases.

Meanwhile, the NCC announced it will delay the 2.6GHz spectrum auctions from September to Q4 after no operator expressed interest in bidding for the TDD bands. The regulator is offering six licences – two in unpaired TDD bands and four in paired FDD frequencies. The combined minimum auction price is set at TWD14.4 billion ($434.65 million).