Taiwan Mobile has pulled out of the country’s 4G spectrum tender after total bids surpassed TWD23.1 billion ($708 million) yesterday.

Taiwan Mobile has 35MHz of 4G spectrum, which it said was sufficient for its needs for the next three to five years. The operator, with a 23 per cent market share, is nearly even with rival Far EasTone Telecommunications, each with about 7.5 million mobile connections.

The tender prices for six blocks in the 2.5-2.6GHz band, which started last week, are already 60 per cent higher than the reserve prices of TWD14.4 billion, DigiTimes reported.

Four operators are still bidding in the tender — market leader Chunghwa Telecom, Far EasTone, Asia Pacific Telecom and Taiwan Star Cellular.

The closing bids yesterday for the six blocks were: NTD5.865 billion (20MHz paired), TWD5.640 billion (20MHz paired), TWD5.640 billion (20MHz paired), TWD3.005 billion (10MHz paired), TWD1.445 billion (25MHz unpaired) and TWD1.505 billion (25MHz unpaired), according to the National Communications Commission.

Given the bids for the first five blocks didn’t increase yesterday, analysts expect the tender to end soon.

The country’s 4G auction in 2013 raised TWD118.6 billion.

Six operators already have about 8.2 million 4G connections, according to GSMA Intelligence.