Taiwan’s Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) has announced that it has received approval from the National Communications Commission (NCC) to build a trial 5G network as it looks to begin preparing for a commercial launch in 2020.
According to the Taipei Times the development makes the operator the first to obtain permission from the regulator to conduct a trial of 5G technology. APT expects to fully deploy its trial infrastructure in less than six months, likely covering Taipei’s Neihu District, New Taipei City’s Tucheng District and the Hsinchu campus of National Chiao Tung University. Although the official standards for 5G have yet to be ratified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), APT has said that the trial network would test the technology so it is ready for commercial launch once the standards are confirmed.