Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (FET, 遠傳電信), the nation’s No. 3 telecom operator, yesterday launched a new 4G handset leasing service in a bid to boost its number of subscribers and increase revenues.
FET is the nation’s first telecom operator to offer the mobile phone leasing service, following in the steps of its US peers Sprint and T-Mobile, as handset leasing demand rises.
The service is one step further by the telecom carrier to affix customers to its network, after offering handset financing services for iPhone buyers last month under the name of “early upgrade plan.”
The latest leasing service makes premium phones from Apple Inc’s iPhone 6S series to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 more affordable for price-sensitive consumers, who would be able to lease the smartphones by paying a monthly fee of NT$297. The service requires subscribers to sign a rate plan of NT$1,399 per month for a two-year service contract.
FET chief sales and marketing officer Maxwell Cheng (鄭智衡) said the new leasing service is to boost the company’s revenue per user, given higher rate plans designed for users who want to lease phones.
Each of FET’s 4G subscribers spent between NT$1,100 and NT$1,200 per month, according to Cheng.
FET estimates that about 10 percent to 20 percent of the nation’s mobile subscribers would choose to lease a phone, instead of buying one.
As a result, the new phone leasing service is to allow FET to increase its share in the nation’s 4G market, as leasing phones is becoming a global trend and the sharing economy becomes popular amid a weak economy, FET said.
More than half of Sprint’s post-paid subscribers opted to lease their phones instead of owning one, after the US telecom company rolled out the service in September last year, FET said. T-Mobile also launched a similar service in June, it said.
FET had 2.59 million 4G subscribers as of Sept. 30, accounting for 28 percent of the nation’s 4G market.
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