Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (FET, 遠傳電信) yesterday spent an additional NT$4.11 billion (US$135.2 million) combined to secure optimal 5G bandwidth, boosting the nation’s 5G auction total to NT$142.19 billion.
The auction price was the world’s third-highest after Germany and Italy, which raised 6.55 billion euros each through 5G bandwidth auctions.
In the second phase of the auction, telecoms bid to secure bandwidth on optimal zones in the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band, after month-long negotiations over arrangements of frequency regions failed.
Chunghwa Telecom spent another NT$2.08 billion acquiring spectrum from 3.42GHz to 3.51GHz, the best zone in the 3.5GHz band, given extensive equipment supply and no second-harmonic frequency interference from existing 4G networks.
“Despite a higher-than-expected cost, our plan for 5G deployment remains unchanged. We aim to launch 5G service in July, based on which our customers will be able to watch the Tokyo Olympics in 4K and VR,” Chunghwa chairman Sheih Chi-mau (謝繼茂) said in a statement.
The nation’s biggest telecom has spent NT$48.37 billion to win bandwidth in the 5G auction, company data showed. In the previous round, Chunghwa Telecom secured 90 megahertz (MHz) of premium bandwidth in the 3.5GHz band.
FET spent an additional NT$2.03 billion on securing spectrum from 3.34GHz to 3.42GHz, both also considered good zones, the company said.
FET plans to launch 5G service in the third quarter.
Although it did not win frequency in the best area, the carrier said that it is confident that it can still offer faster Internet connections and better 5G services than its rivals, as it won 80MHz bandwidth in the 3.5GHz band.
FET has spent NT$43.04 billion in the two rounds of bidding, company data showed.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) yesterday did not spend anything vying for the optimal zones, gaining space in the spectrum of 3.51GHZ to 3.57GHZ and 3.3GHZ to 3.34GHZ respectively, the companies said.
Those zones are considered less ideal, as fewer manufacturers provide terminals and equipment for them and they might experience interference from satellites, a market observer said.
Taiwan Mobile said that its bandwidth would be enough to serve customers for the next decade, as it plans to launch 5G service in the third quarter, while Taiwan Star said that it would launch its new service as soon as possible.
Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star spent NT$30.65 billion and NT$19.7 billion respectively in the two phases respectively, companies data showed.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to