Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest telecom services provider by revenue, and Apple Inc plan to jointly launch the third-generation Apple iPhone in Taiwan before the end of the year, the Taiwanese firm said yesterday.
The company “has signed a contract with Apple and will provide third-generation [3G] iPhone services in Taiwan before the end of the year,” Chunghwa Telecom said in a statement.
A Chunghwa Telecom official said Taiwan would be among the third wave of countries to launch the iPhone 3G since Apple first released the device on July 11 in 22 countries.
The company has yet to set service charges for the operation of the iPhone 3G, said the official, who asked not to be named.
EXTENDING ITS LEAD
Chunghwa Telecom, competing against Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far Eastone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), will be the first operator in Taiwan to offer the phone in a bid to extend its lead over competitors.
The iPhone may help Taipei-based Chunghwa Telecom increase sales from wireless Web, e-mail and messaging beyond the 9.9 percent of mobile-services revenue it posted in September.
The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that Apple granted Chunghwa Telecom the exclusive right to sell iPhones because of the Taiwanese firm’s large sales channel.
As the iPhone is very attractive to most mobile users, its introduction will not only gain attention from people who adore Apple gadgets, but also act to move subscribers from other telecom operators to Chunghwa Telecom, made possible by the number portability service, the newspaper said.
Number portability refers to a service that allows mobile subscribers to use their previous cellphone numbers when they change operators.
BIG MARKET
Taiwan has one of the world’s highest cellphone usage rates at 102.5 subscriptions for every 100 citizens, Chunghwa Telecom said.
The company had 8.9 million cellphone subscribers at the end of September and gets around 40 percent of revenue from its wireless business.
The iPhone 3G became the most popular handset among US consumers last quarter, passing Motorola Inc’s Razr, research firm NPD Group said on Monday.
The new version of the iPhone operates on so-called 3G networks, which are much faster for data downloads and Internet surfing than the Edge networks used by the original iPhone, released last year. Available in more than 50 countries, the new version also features a GPS location device.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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