The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) said on Wednesday that it is scheduled to auction the spectrum that is available for 4G, or Long Term Evolution (LTE) services in the middle of this year.

The total 4G spectrum bands comprise 150 MHz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band and 120 MHz of spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band for auction.

The IDA had allowed the telcos to deploy 4G systems and services using their existing spectrum rights. All three mobile operators here, including SingTel, M1 and Starhub, have all deployed LTE services, with planned nationwide deployments by 2013.

According to the agency's timetable, the "newly-allocated spectrum rights will commence on 1 July 2015 for spectrum in the 2. 5 GHz band and 1 April 2017 for spectrum in the 1800 MHz band," upon expiration of the existing spectrum rights. Once successfully bidded, the new licences will run until June 30, 2030.

Meanwhile, the agency has also set aside 40 MHz of the spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band for new mobile operator, but if there will be no new entrant, the 'set-aside' spectrum will go back to the main auction.

"Despite the new spectrum rights commencing some 2-4 years later, IDA is holding the spectrum reallocation exercise now, to give operators more certainty in their 4G investments. "it added in a statement.

The three operators here have deployed the LTE services one after another this year when the widely anticipated iPhone 5 was launched. The 4G service is said to provide more innovative services with data transfer rates that would potentially be several times faster than existing 3G data plans. Endi