Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) yesterday said it is entering a strategic partnership with cable TV operator China Network Systems Co (CNS, 中嘉網路) to expand its reach to household users in preparation to make its 5G services available to a larger customer base.
The collaboration would help complete the convergence of wireless and fixed-line networks, which would be crucial for the companies in offering a range of services from the Internet of Things and smart homes to online payments, the companies said in a statement.
“The alliance helps Taiwan Star improve its 5G blueprint. It also helps the company expand its customer base to household users, a long-term lost piece to its customer portfolio that includes personal and enterprise customers now,” Taiwan Star president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) said in the statement.
In the initial stage, Taiwan Star would offer discounts to CNS subscribers who sign up for mobile services, while Taiwan Star users would pay a smaller bill for broadband and cable TV subscriptions, the companies said.
CNS would have access to richer digital content, helping it fend off growing competition from over-the-top operators, which stream videos over the Internet, the companies said.
As of the end of April, Taiwan Star had 2.2 million 4G users, while CNS, the nation’s biggest cable TV operator, had about 1.6 million subscribers.
The alliance came as the National Communications Commission brought forward the date of a 5G bandwidth auction to the end of this year from the first half of next year.
This means telecom operators would launch commercial 5G services as early as in the first half of next year.
Taiwan Star said it would make every effort to win a slice of the 5G bandwidth in the first-round bidding and it is working with industry partners, including Nokia Oyj, to build a 5G ecosystem.
Taiwan Star last year saw its losses narrow to NT$4.11 billion (US$130.39 million), from NT$6.75 billion the previous year, the company’s annual report showed.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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