Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) yesterday said it aims to complete its acquisition of Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星) by the end of this year, after the Fair Trade Commission gave a conditional go-ahead to the deal.
The transaction would boost the subscriber base of the new entity to nearly 10 million users along with elevated bandwidth and frequency, Taiwan Mobile said in a statement.
Taiwan Mobile’s board of directors in August approved a proposal to raise its capital spending this year to NT$15.65 billion (US$487.16 million) to fund the integration of base stations managed by the two firms.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Taiwan Mobile currently operates 13,000 base stations, while Taiwan Star owns 9,000 units, the companies’ data showed.
“With the regulatory approval, Taiwan’s telecom industry is ushering in a new era,” Taiwan Mobile said. “The new Taiwan Mobile will offer services with greatly elevated bandwidth and frequency for subscribers.”
In July, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) obtained an approval from the commission to absorb smaller peer Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信) in a deal valued at about NT$24.7 billion.
The number of telecom operators in Taiwan would be reduced to three from five following the latest industry consolidation.
“The telecom industry is both technology and capital-intensive. Telecom operators will be able to enhance their operational efficiency and competitiveness through mergers,” the commission said in a statement yesterday.
To maintain market competition and ease concern about market concentration, the commission demanded that Taiwan Mobile safeguard the interests of subscribers and ensure the service quality.
Taiwan Mobile must comprehensively accept terms of Taiwan Star’s existing contracts and ensure Taiwan Star’s subscribers to continue services until Dec. 31, 2025, the commission said.
In addition, Taiwan Star’s 4G subscribers are to continue their contracts until the expiration of the company’s 4G bandwidth license, it said.
Meanwhile, service subscribers who are mentally or physically challenged, from low-income households or 65 years or older can subscribe to preferential tariff plans for at least five years, the commission said. General subscribers can access preferential tariff plans for at least one year, it said.
TECH TITAN: Pandemic-era demand for semiconductors turbocharged the nation’s GDP per capita to surpass South Korea’s, but it still remains half that of Singapore Taiwan is set to surpass South Korea this year in terms of wealth for the first time in more than two decades, marking a shift in Asia’s economic ranks made possible by the ascent of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). According to the latest forecasts released on Thursday by the central bank, Taiwan’s GDP is expected to expand 4.55 percent this year, a further upward revision from the 4.45 percent estimate made by the statistics bureau last month. The growth trajectory puts Taiwan on track to exceed South Korea’s GDP per capita — a key measure of living standards — a
Samsung Electronics Co shares jumped 4.47 percent yesterday after reports it has won approval from Nvidia Corp for the use of advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, which marks a breakthrough for the South Korean technology leader. The stock closed at 83,500 won in Seoul, the highest since July 31 last year. Yesterday’s gain comes after local media, including the Korea Economic Daily, reported that Samsung’s 12-layer HBM3E product recently passed Nvidia’s qualification tests. That clears the components for use in the artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators essential to the training of AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek (深度求索), and finally allows Samsung
READY TO HELP: Should TSMC require assistance, the government would fully cooperate in helping to speed up the establishment of the Chiayi plant, an official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its investment plans in Taiwan are “unchanged” amid speculation that the chipmaker might have suspended construction work on its second chip packaging plant in Chiayi County and plans to move equipment arranged for the plant to the US. The Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier yesterday that TSMC had halted the construction of the chip packaging plant, which was scheduled to be completed next year and begin mass production in 2028. TSMC did not directly address whether construction of the plant had halted, but said its investment plans in Taiwan remain “unchanged.” The chipmaker started
MORTGAGE WORRIES: About 34% of respondents to a survey said they would approach multiple lenders to pay for a home, while 29.2% said they would ask family for help New housing projects in Taiwan’s six special municipalities, as well as Hsinchu city and county, are projected to total NT$710.65 billion (US$23.61 billion) in the upcoming fall sales season, a record 30 percent decrease from a year earlier, as tighter mortgage rules prompt developers to pull back, property listing platform 591.com (591新建案) said yesterday. The number of projects has also fallen to 312, a more than 20 percent decrease year-on-year, underscoring weakening sentiment and momentum amid lingering policy and financing headwinds. New Taipei City and Taoyuan bucked the downturn in project value, while Taipei, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung
RSS