Asia-Pacific Telecommunity band plan

The Asia-Pacific Telecommunity band plan is a type of segmentation of the 612–806 MHz band formalized by the APT in 2022–2023 and 2008-2010 respectively and specially configured for the deployment of mobile broadband technologies. This segmentation exists in two variants, FDD and TDD, that have been standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and recommended by the International Telecommunication Union as segmentations A5 and A6, respectively. The APT band plan has been designed to enable the most efficient use of available spectrum. Therefore, this plan divides the band into contiguous blocks of frequencies that are as large as possible taking account of the need to avoid interference with services in other frequency bands. As the result, the TDD option includes 100 MHz of continuous spectrum, while the FDD option comprises two large blocks, one of 45 MHz for uplink transmission in the lower part of the band and the other also of 45 MHz for downlink transmission in the upper part. As defined in the standard, both FDD and TDD schemes for the 700 MHz band include guard bands of 5 MHz and 3 MHz at their lower and upper edges, respectively. The FDD version also includes a centre gap of 10 MHz. The guard bands serve the purpose of mitigating interference with adjacent bands while the FDD centre gap is required to avoid interference between uplink and downlink transmissions. The two arrangements are shown graphically in figures 1 and 2.

Existing 3GPP standards for the APT band plan are given below:

3GPP LTE band	3GPP NR band	Duplex	Uplink Frequency	Downlink frequency
28	n28	FDD	703–748 MHz	758–803 MHz
44	-	TDD	703–803 MHz	703–803 MHz
-	n105	FDD	663–703 MHz	612–652 MHz

Table 1. 3GPP standard bands for the APT segmentation of the 600 and 700 MHz bands
Allocation of the 700 MHz band to mobile communications it is one of the key solutions for meeting the mobile data explosion challenge faced by the telecommunications industry and telecommunications regulators seeking additional spectrum for the deployment of new mobile broadband networks and capacity. As of today, the APT band plan is considered to be the most effective way to segment the 700 MHz band from the point of view of modern spectrum management. The superior spectral efficiency of this plan is explained further in this article. Currently, the FDD configuration is the one which has been studied most widely and is much more popular across the world. For this reason, the FDD APT band plan option is generally referred to as the APT band plan.

History

Milestones of the development of the 700 MHz band	Market facts
August 1997 – FCC, the U.S. telecom regulator, proposes a rulemaking in order to allocate frequencies in the upper 700 MHz for dedicated use by public safety agencies of the USA. The rest of the 700 MHz band is set to be attributed to International Mobile Telecommunications International Mobile Telecommunications. With this, FCC demonstrates its leadership and vision in spectrum management as early as a decade before the APT band plan is created and long before the appearance of mobile data growth phenomenon. However, as a result, the US band plan is shaped in a highly complex and fragmented way.	1997 – The international public telecommunications numbering plan is published in Recommendation E.164 by the ITU 1998 - Sprint Corporation announces that it will offer an advanced packet-switching network to simultaneously send voice, data, and video down a single phone line, for the first time in history.
September 2000, February 2001, April 2002, August 2002, May 2003, July 2005 – In USA, during Auctions 31, 33, 38, 44, 49, and 60, respectively, guardbands and a few spectrum blocks are auctioned in both upper and lower 700 MHz bands. The frequencies are arranged in a way that the 700 MHz band is broken into small spectrum blocks of 6 MHz wide each.	1999 – For the first time in the world, internet service on mobile phones is introduced by a Japanese company called NTT DoCoMo 2000 – ITU reports 400 mln internet users in the world 2001 – Wikipedia goes online and rapidly gains popularity 2001 – The first commercial 3G network using the WCDMA technology is launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo 2002 – Research in Motion releases its first Blackberry smartphone 2003 – EDGE technology is deployed for the first time in the US by Cingular permitting data transmission with a theoretical maximum bitrate of 384 kbit/s 2005 - Nokia announces the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, the first tablet to appear on the market
October 2007 – The decision to allocate the 700 MHz band to IMT is taken at the World Radio Conference in 2007 by the ITU-R.	2006 – First 4G WiMAX network is deployed commercially in South Korea by KT Corp. 2007 – 3G networks worldwide reach 295 million subscribers 2007 – Apple Inc. announces the iPhone, a product that is designed to unleash the potential of mobile internet
March 2008 – The FCC auctions off A, B, C, and E block licenses in the 700 MHz band raising around US$19 billion. As a result, the biggest share of the spectrum goes to Verizon Wireless and the next biggest to AT&T. These auctions and the spectrum ownership they granted represent one of the most important steps in the definition of the ecosystem of the US band plan.	2008 – Apple Inc. releases iPhone 3G that supports 3G networks and boosts mobile data consumption by users
September 2009 – Shortly after the WRC-07, based on inputs from numerous stakeholders and having taken into account foreseen developments of telecommunications industry, the Spectrum Working Group of the APT elaborates the original version of the APT band plan in the 700 MHz band in their release of the Report 11.	2009 – First 4G LTE network is deployed commercially in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera
March 2010 - During the 8th meeting of the APT Wireless Forum, held in Tokyo, Japan from 29 March to 1 April 2010, the consensus is reached on the basic structure of harmonized segmentation of the 698-806 MHz band and the Spectrum Working Group of the APT initiates the study of the UHF Digital Dividend in order to develop frequency arrangements leading to a widely accepted harmonized band plan for the 700 MHz band. In September 2010, APT releases its final harmonized frequency arrangements for the 700 MHz band.	April 2010 – Apple Inc. releases iPad, a tablet computer that supports data transmission over 3G networks June 2010 - Sprint Nextel releases the first WiMAX smartphone in the US, the HTC Evo 4G November 2010 - Samsung Galaxy Craft offered by MetroPCS is the first commercially available LTE smartphone
September 2011 - The Spectrum Working group releases the second report focusing on the APT band plan where a number of in-depth studies on mobile user equipment and out-of-band emission levels are presented. In December 2011, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission adopts a new recommendation: PCC.II/REC.30 “Frequency arrangements in the 698-806 MHz band in the Americas for the mobile broadband services” which includes the FDD APT band plan as another option of segmentation of the 700 MHz band for Americas Region, besides the US band plan.	2011 - With 5.9 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions, global mobile penetration reaches 87%. 2011 - Mobile-broadband subscriptions grow 45% annually and reach the figure of almost 1.2 billion. By the end of the year, there are twice as many mobile broadband as fixed broadband subscriptions 2011 - Worldwide 3G coverage reaches 45% of the population
January 2012 – Before and during the World Radio Conference 2012, the APT band plan gains momentum resulting in a number of Latin American countries announcing publicly their preference of this segmentation of the 700 MHz band plan in the following months. In March 2012, the Radio Communications Bureau of the ITU releases Recommendation ITU-R M.1036-4 “Frequency arrangements for implementation of the terrestrial component of International Mobile Telecommunications in the bands identified for IMT in the Radio Regulations ” ; which includes for 698-960 MHz band the frequency arrangement equivalent to FDD APT band plan identified as “A5”. In October 2012, during XX CITEL's PCC.II meeting in Mexico City, followed by the 2nd Latin American Spectrum Conference, organized by Mexican telecommunications regulator, a number of countries of Latin America highlight their strong preference towards the APT band plan, including Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador, among others.	November 2012 – Apple Inc. releases the new iPad 4 that supports various LTE networks across the globe July 2012 - approximately 10.5% of all Web traffic occurs through mobile devices September 2012 – Apple releases iPhone 5 that supports LTE networks in the 700 MHz band. Equipped with a frontal HD camera, iPhone again sets expectations for increasingly higher mobile data consumption.

Table 2. Milestones of the development of the 700 MHz band

Worldwide regulation status for the APT band plan by country

Country	Current state
Australia	Australia auctioned off part of the 700 MHz spectrum according to the APT band plan together with the 2.5 GHz band.
Argentina	Argentina's position was publicly announced at the XVIII CITEL's PCC.II meeting in November 2011. Through its proposal, the country added the APT segmentation option for the band 698-806 MHz in accordance with ITU-R M.1036-4.
Brazil	On February 6, 2013, Brazil published the guidelines for accelerate access to the Digital Television and the expansion of spectrum availability for meeting the objectives of the Brazilian National Broadband Program in the Official Gazette. One of the proposals is to consider regional and international harmonization in order to adopt a frequency arrangement that favors coexistence in border regions and the exploitation of economies of scale, the APT bandplan.
Chile	In May 2016, SUBTEL, Chile's telecoms regulator, announced nationwide deployment using the 700 MHz band for LTE and authorized telecoms to start offering the service.
China	China plans to adopt the TDD version of the APT bandplan. However, in 2022, China Broadnet Mobile was awarded 703-733/758-788MHz FDD spectrum. China Broadnet Mobile is building a 5G network in conjunction with China Mobile.
Colombia	In May 2012, Colombia announced its adoption of the APT band plan. Colombia is expected to carry out the first tests in Latin America for a LTE network on the 700 MHz band with APT channeling supported by Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson. The first tests were to take place during 1Q 2013.
Costa Rica	In March 2012, SUTEL, Costa Rican regulator became the first regulator in Latin America to issue a recommendation in favor of the APT band plan on 29 March where it mentioned the efforts aimed to reach regional harmonization in the 700 MHz band: ”…Among the efforts to concretize this harmonization of spectrum, is the initiative of the Federal Telecommunications Commission, the entity that, through a series of dialogues with governments of Latin America, has discovered that there exists a great geographic consensus on the way to utilize the spectrum in the 698-806 MHz band that permits to maximize the social impact of networks in this band.”
Ecuador	In October 2012, Ecuador announced the adoption of the APT band plan at the week of the XX CITEL's PCC.II meeting in Mexico City.
Japan	In June 2012, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs Communications awarded rights to the use of 700-MHz spectrum to NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, SoftBank and e-Mobile in accordance with APT FDD band plan.
India	In April 2012, the country has introduced the National Frequency Allocation plan where it sets the 700 MHz band to be used for IMT. TRAI, the country's telecom regulator, has proposed to adopt the APT bandplan and to auction the frequencies already in 2013. March 2013 – TRAI announced the adoption of APT700 FDD band plan and clearly stated that the reason for preferring it over the US band plan was more efficient use of spectrum. In 2022, India auctioned the APT 600 MHz band being the first country in the world to do so.
Hong Kong	In November 2021, Office of the Communications Authority auctioned off part of the 700 MHz spectrum after PAL analogue TV ceased broadcasting on 30 November 2020
Mexico	In September 2012, The Federal Commission of Telecommunications in Mexico announced the adoption of the APT band plan for the 700 MHz band. This decision became one of the few decisions in the area of telecommunications where Mexico adopts a competing model with the USA. It was taken despite the necessity for additional coordination along the common US-Mexico border of around 3000 km.
New Zealand	New Zealand adopted the full FDD APT band plan and auctioned the spectrum in October 2013. Vodafone deployed the first 4G services on 700 MHz in New Zealand in July 2014
Panama	In October 2012, Panama adopted APT band plan one week before the XX CITEL's PCC.II meeting in Mexico City.
Papua New Guinea	Papua New Guinea adopted the APT FDD 2 x 45 MHz band plan.
Philippines	The Philippine government with a small part and the duopoly, SMART Communications and Globe Telecom, acquired the coveted 700 MHz spectrum when San Miguel Corporation sold its telecom business.
Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia CST set aside 703-733/758-788MHz aside for mobile spectrum. In November 2024, Mobily acquires 20MHz spectrum license for 15 years.
South Korea	South Korea allocated 2 x 20 MHz in accordance with the APT FDD band plan; usage of remaining spectrum officially has not yet been decided. Analog switch off is set to be completed by the end of 2012.
Taiwan	In October 2012, the National Communications Commission in Taiwan announced that they adopted the Asia Pacific Telecommunity band plan for the 700 MHz band for mobile services. Auctions dates are set for August 2013 and the spectrum will be auctioned off in 4 blocks - three blocks of 10x2 MHz and one block of 15x2 MHz.
Tonga	Tonga adopted the APT FDD 2 x 45 MHz band plan.
Trinidad and Tobago	In November 2017, the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago adopted the APT FDD 700 MHz band plan. 2 x 10 MHz of spectrum was allocated to PPDR, 2 x 30 MHz was allocated for the provision of public mobile telecommunication services and 2 x 5 MHz was allocated for future use. In October 2020, Digicel and bmobile both received their licenses in the 700 MHz band.
United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates adopted the APT band plan in May 2013. UAE is adopting the 2 x 30 MHz channel plan for the 700 MHz band as a baseline, consisting of 703–733 MHz paired with 758 – 788 MHz. The regulator has committed to vacate this band by end of 2013 for IMT utilization.

Table 3. Worldwide regulation status for the APT band plan by country