LIVE FROM COMMUNICASIA 2013: Communications regulators from Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore today announced a commitment to align with the APT 700MHz band plan.

At an event held today in Singapore, the group noted the potential for this spectrum to offer both high speed data and improved wide-area and indoor coverage.

The intention is to use spectrum freed-up by the switch off of analogue television services to provide mobile broadband services, “using technologies such as 4G”.

Leong Keng Thai, director-general (Telecoms & Post), at Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, said: “This marks an important milestone achieved by the four regulatory authorities. I hope that this collaboration could be further extended to other countries in this region, as this will help improve regional mobile roaming and allow the countries to meet growing demand for mobile broadband.”

According to a recent study by Wireless Intelligence, so far there have been no launches of LTE networks in Asia using the 700MHz frequencies.

Other markets having stated support for the APT 700MHz plan include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Earlier this week, the GSMA renewed its call for the government of Thailand to allocate 700MHz spectrum for mobile broadband use, following this country’s digital television switch-over.