Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecoms operator, said yesterday it intended to start offering Apple Inc’s popular iPhone on Saturday to cope with growing appetite for the device.
Bigger rival Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) is scheduled to launch the iPhone on the same day.
The launch will bring to an end Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) exclusive right to sell the iPhone in Taiwan, which it obtained two years ago.
Far EasTone vice chairman Jan Nilsson told investors on Feb. 25 that the iPhone business model remained slightly questionable among telecoms operators.
“Their branding and attraction, however, is extremely strong, so it has become a necessity for telecoms companies to include the iPhone in their product portfolio,” Nilsson said.
Far EasTone launched a pre-selling in the middle of last month and has received more than 18,000 orders since, which greatly exceeded expectations, company spokesperson Alison Kao (高治華) said by telephone.
To address growing demand for bandwidth following the sales of data-oriented smartphones like iPhones, Far EasTone intends to increase its investment in network upgrades by about 34 percent to NT$8.6 billion (US$269.3 million) this year from NT$6.4 billion last year, Kao said.
Far EasTone yesterday posted a net income of NT$794 million for last month, up 5.6 percent from NT$752 million a year ago. Revenues, however, dropped 3.3 percent year-on-year to NT$4.68 billion last month from NT$4.84 billion.
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