Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecoms operator, is collaborating with China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) to provide lower-priced tariffs for voice roaming services in China, targeting Taiwanese businesspeople, a company executive said yesterday.
This marked the first cooperation between the two companies, 13 months after Far EasTone’s board approved a proposal to sell a 12 percent stake to China Mobile and form a strategic partnership with the Chinese carrier in several areas including roaming, value-added services and technology exchange.
However, no progress has been made since April last year as Chinese companies are barred from investing in major telecoms companies in Taiwan, the executive said.
“This is the beginning,” Daniel Chang (張嘉祥), executive vice president of New Century InfoComm Tech Co Ltd (NCIC, 新世紀資通), a fixed-line subsidiary of Far EasTone, told a media briefing.
“We will continue to collaborate in different areas that are allowed [by the Taiwanese government]. They include providing applications on S Mart [an outlet similar to Apple Inc’s App Store launched by Far EasTone] and mobile applications such as long-distance surveillance systems [to China Mobile],” Chang said.
US soft drink company Coca-Cola Co is using NCIC’s long-distance surveillance solutions to replenish canned drinks sold from vending machines, Chang said.
By signing up for the new voice roaming service, Far EasTone subscribers will save more than 70 percent in voice bills when they travel to major cities in China including Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in Jiangsu, Guangdong and Fujian provinces.
“The service covers about 70 percent to 80 percent of areas where Taiwanese businesspeople work,” NCIC president Jeffey Gee (紀竹律) said. “And we plan to gradually expand the coverage.”
Subscribers will pay a minimum monthly fee of NT$99, allowing them to make voice calls within China by paying NT$1.99 per minute, 73 percent lower than the NT$7.51 per minute charged by bigger rivals Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), to Far EasTone said.
Subscribers are not required to sign a service contract. As of March, Far EasTone had 6.34 million mobile users.
Shares of Far EasTone inched up 0.4 percent to NT$37.90 yesterday, underperforming the bourse, which rebounded 1.14 percent.
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant
RSS