Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (FET, 遠傳電信) yesterday said it planned to purchase as many as 2.8 million mobile and wearable devices, including Apple Inc’s first smartwatch, this year in its latest push to accelerate growth of 4G subscriptions.
The nation’s No. 3 telecom operator last month set a goal of tripling its 4G subscribers to 3 million this year from 1 million last year, indicating that users of the high-speed data-oriented 4G service would account for nearly 50 percent of its post-paid customers two years after its launch.
“It will not be difficult to reach that goal,” chief sales and marketing officer Maxwell Cheng (鄭智衡) told reporters. “More than 60 percent of our new customers sign up for 4G services. Growth momentum is still robust, as Taiwan’s 4G penetration is currently below 20 percent.”
Overall, 4G subscribers are expected to reach 10 million this year, Cheng said. He expects the nation’s three largest telecoms to secure 3 million 4G subscribers each, and the two smaller 4G service providers to attain a combined 1 million.
To meet the demand expected to accompany FET’s rapid growth in 4G subscribers, the company plans to buy 2.35 million mobile phones, along with an unspecified number of wearable devices and tablets this year.
FET hopes to sell the Apple Watch sometime this year following its US debut, and hopes the launch will help boost overall smart wearable device sales, Cheng said.
Cheng said that less than 10 percent of the handsets sourced this year would support voice over long-term evolution (VoLTE) technology, which allows users to talk on the telephone via a 4G data network, citing limited selection.
Cheng said that FET plans to launch its first VoLTE service in the first half of this year, rather than this quarter as originally scheduled.
Shares of FET dropped 0.79 percent to NT$75 yesterday, versus the TAIEX’s 0.86 percent loss.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last