Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信) yesterday said that it aims to expand its 5G coverage to potentially cover up to 50 percent of the nation’s population by the end of this year, after its service debuts early next month.
The company plans to launch its 5G service “within days” of when the nation’s biggest telecom operator, Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), introduces its service next month.
“The coverage ratio is more important than the base station count,” Far EasTone chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taipei.
Photo courtesy of Far EasTone Telecommunications Co
“We aim to boost population coverage,” Hsu said. “We want half of Taiwan’s population to have access to [Far EasTone’s 5G network] by the end of this year.”
Hsu made the remarks after Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) announced its plans to deploy 4,000 5G base stations by the end of this year, up from a planned 2,000 units.
Taiwan Mobile lagged slightly behind Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone in obtaining 5G licenses and beginning infrastructure construction.
Far EasTone plans to install more than 3,000 5G base stations before Dec. 31, company president Chee Ching (井琪) told reporters yesterday, adding that the base stations would first be installed in the nation’s six special municipalities, other populous areas and business areas.
Far EasTone on Wednesday signed an agreement with Ericsson AB to purchase about NT$9.9 billion (US$333.78 million) in telecommunications equipment, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
The telecom plans to offer different tiers of 5G service, including for as low as NT$1,000 per month, to cater to subscribers’ needs, Ching said.
There will be affordable tariffs, she said, adding that one option for subscribers would be NT$1,399 per month, the cap set by the National Communications Commission.
Far EasTone also aims to become the nation’s biggest supplier of private networks, Ching said.
The company received its first order to build a private 5G network for an enterprise customer, she said, adding that it has 40 more potential customers.
Unlike 4G networks, which are public, 5G networks can be sliced into spectrums to be used by various app-driven industries, said Philip Tseng (曾詩淵), vice president of Far EasTone’s enterprise and carrier business unit.
Far EasTone aims to increase its revenue contribution from enterprise customers to 25 percent this year, from 22 percent in the first quarter.
Far EasTone in January secured 80 megahertz (MHz) in the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) band of the 5G spectrum and 400MHz in the 28GHz band at a combined cost of NT$43.04 billion.
Company shareholders approved a proposal to pay a cash dividend of NT$3.25 per share, which represents a payout ratio of 121 percent.
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
MOBILE SMART: The Dimensity 1200 is 22 percent better in terms of performance than its predecessor, and 25 percent more power-efficient, the handset chip designer said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday unveiled its premium 5G processors — the Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100 — as it vies for a larger slice of the world’s rapidly growing 5G smartphone market. Manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 6-nanometer process technology, the Dimensity 1200 processor performs 22 percent better than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+ processor, and is 25 percent more power-efficient, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Realme Mobile Telecommunications (Shenzhen) Co (銳爾覓移動通信) are to be the first adopters of the latest Dimensity chips, the companies said during a virtual media briefing. Xiaomi plans to equip its first
Answering to a reported request by Germany to help address a chip shortage in its auto industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said that it was in talks with domestic chip suppliers. Foreign media over the weekend reported that German Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier had sent a request to Taipei to ask Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cooperate more closely with German automakers to provide microchips and sensors, to bridge a shortage that has emerged over the past few months. The MOEA said that it had not yet received the request and could therefore not elaborate
FOCUS ON FOUNDRIES: An analyst said that some investors would be disappointed because they were expecting a larger announcement of a partnership with TSMC Intel Corp’s incoming chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger on Thursday pledged to regain the company’s lead in chip manufacturing, countering growing calls from some investors to shed that part of its business. “I am confident that the majority of our 2023 products will be manufactured internally,” Gelsinger said. “At the same time, given the breadth of our portfolio, it’s likely that we will expand our use of external foundries for certain technologies and products.” He plans to provide more details after officially taking over the CEO role on Feb. 15, but Gelsinger was clear that Intel is sticking with its once mighty