The four national communications agencies of Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia have jointly agreed to follow the Asia Pacific Telecommunity 700MHz band plan (APT) in order to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband data transmission in Southeast Asia.

The commitment was announced by Singaporean Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim at the official opening of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange 2013 (imbX-2013) on June 18 in Singapore.

Accord ing to Bernama, Malaysia’s National News Agency, the agencies in agreement include Brunei’s Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AITI), Indonesia’s Directorate General Sumber Daya dan Perangkat Pos dan Informatika (DG SDPPI), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore.

Held annually in Singapore since 2009, the imbX is Asia's largest information technology forum and digital media and entertainment platform, and draws about 60,000 international participants from governments, industries and media around the world.

In his opening speech, Yaacob said the APT commitment will allow countries to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband, improve data roaming and provide more competitive mobile broadband services.

He also said the 700 MHz digital radio frequency, which is expected to be available by 2020, will greatly strengthen connectivity in the region and beyond.

The Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) band plan is a type of segmentation of the 698–806 MHz band (usually referred to as the 700 MHz band) formalised by the APT in 2008-2010 and specially configured for the deployment of mobile broadband technologies.-VNA