■ Big spending on FTTH
Taiwan's biggest phone company, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), yesterday said it planned to spend NT$60 billion (US$1.85 billion) over the next five years on deploying fiber-optical cables to provide high-speed multimedia transmission for its broadband users.
Chunghwa Telecom expects users of its fiber to the home (FTTH) service to more than triple to 500,000 households by the end of this year from 150,000 currently, and to grow to 2.4 million households by 2010.
The FTTH users would account for half of the company's broadband users by 2010, the telecom operator said.
It said the FTTH service would replace the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service.
■ BenQ to build Brno factory
BenQ Corp (明基) will construct a factory for LCD screen and monitors in the Czech Republic city of Brno, the project's local promoter CTP Invest said yesterday.
"We are preparing a site for BenQ which should be ready by the middle of the year," said Remon Vos, CTP Invest's Czech director.
According to the Czech news server aktualne.cz, the factory will have eight assembly lines capable of producing around 500,000 LCD screens and 500,000 monitors a year.
■ Formosa lowers prices
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday lowered gasoline and diesel prices, matching a move by larger rival Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油).
Domestic wholesale gasoline prices fell by NT$0.4 a liter and those of diesel by NT$0.3, effective 9am, the company said.
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