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.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure