Line Corp, creator of the Line messaging app, which has 19 million local users, yesterday announced its entrance into Taiwan’s telecoms market with its new service called Line Mobile.
The new service is the result of a partnership leveraging the infrastructure built by local giant Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) and aims to serve people seeking low-priced monthly plans with unlimited data usage, Line Taiwan general manager Roger Chen (陳立人) told a news conference in Taipei.
Line Mobile offers year-long unlimited data contracts at monthly plans costing NT$299, NT$399 and NT$499, while connection speeds at the two lower price points would be throttled at 10 megabits per second (Mbps) and 21Mbps respectively.
The two lowest price points are designed to cater to lower-usage customers who primarily need data connection for texting and voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) calls, Chen said.
The NT$399-a-month plan meets the connection speed requirement for streaming video and offers 20 minutes of cellular calls, he added.
The NT$499 plan does not throttle connection speed and includes 25 minutes of cellular calls, Line Mobile said, adding that people can begin subscribing to the service today.
Although Line Mobile does not offer subsidized smartphone purchases, it is planning to attract new subscribers with bonus reward points that could be used to purchase emoji stickers.
Line Mobile said that its subscribers would be added to Far EasTone’s tally, and while Far EasTone differentiates its customers by the amount of data used, it differentiates by data connection speeds.
Line Mobile is the latest entrant to Taiwan’s crowded telecoms market, where rival carriers have been engaged in years of cutthroat price competition since the introduction of fourth generation networks.
Line Mobile is not expected to have a significant effect on other carriers, industry observers have said.
Line Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator, similar to services launched by local convenience store chains and big box shops, they said.
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