Tele2 said it has been “exploring LTE 450 and trialling it” in Estonia, but has some hurdles to address before it can make firm decisions about the technology.

“Before announcing our further plans or taking any decisions we have to clear regulatory issues about employing LTE in the 450 MHz band,” Ervins Kampans, the company’s CTIO, told Mobile World Live.

Tele2 recently announced plans to close its existing CDMA450 network, with Kampans stating that this “is a legacy technology and now it is time to retire it”.

The company has been looking at LTE 450 for two years. It already has LTE networks in place using more mainstream frequency bands.

While LTE 450 provides an evolution path for operators holding 450MHz spectrum to move away from aging CDMA technology, as yet there has been little sign that momentum around LTE 450 is picking up.

The first commercial network was launched late last year, by Ukko Mobile in Finland, but other 450MHz spectrum holders have not followed suit.

450MHz gives operators advantages in its ability to cover wide areas with fewer base stations, enabling operators to serve users in regions which would otherwise be economically unviable.

It is also seen as a useful technology for M2M applications, where capacity and high data rates are less important than coverage, with the advantage of offloading IoT traffic from networks which could be used to deliver more lucrative consumer services.

Tele2 gained its CDMA450 network in Estonia through its acquisition of business-focused service provider Televorgu in 2012.