Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) is to pay up to NT$5 billion (US$169.3 million) to acquire an 11.58 percent stake in Asia Pacific Telecom (APT,亞太電信), it said in an unexpected announcement late on Friday.
The deal is the first part of Far EasTone’s broader plan to deepen partnerships and trim heavy 5G deployment costs through spectrum sharing, it said.
It is Far EasTone’s second equity investment after its 2003 acquisition of KG Telecommunications.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
It also marks the nation’s first 5G spectrum sharing deal after the National Communications Commission allowed sharing, which is initially limited to the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) band.
Far EasTone plans to subscribe to 500 million new shares issued by APT, which is 40 percent owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry, it said.
Hon Hai’s APT stake is to fall to about 36 percent after the transaction.
The spectrum-sharing deal would “help Far EasTone gain better spectral efficiency and reduce network deployment costs, allowing more leeway for the company to develop 5G-enabled applications,” Far EasTone president Chee Ching (井琪) said in a statement.
During government auctions in February, Far EasTone spent NT$43.04 billion on securing 5G spectrum on the 3.5GHz and 28GHz frequency bands.
The deal would give APT much-needed access to the 3.5GHz frequency band for 20 years, allowing it to catch up with rivals in launching its 5G services by the end of the year.
APT is the only telecom carrier that has not yet offered 5G services.
APT also agreed to pay NT$9.47 billion to use the spectrum and share about 22 percent of the network deployment costs, a joint statement said.
The 3.5GHz frequency band is considered to be a prime 5G bandwidth, suitable for smart cities and factories.
APT only secured 400 megahertz in the 28GHz spectrum for NT$412 million, but telecom equipment supporting the 28GHz spectrum is not yet ready for commercial use.
The Far EasTone-APT deal is still subject to commission approval.
In the second part of its investment scheme, Far EasTone is to further boost its stake in APT to about 23.8 percent by the end of June 2022 through a share-swap deal in which Hon Hai would obtain about a 2.45 percent stake in Far EasTone, the statement said.
The deal would give Far EasTone two seats on APT’s board of directors.
Far EasTone’s announcement caught industry analysts off guard, as APT had been in talks with Taiwan Mobile about a deal to build and share 5G networks, and extend their 4G spectrum-leasing partnership.
APT is using Taiwan Mobile’s spectrum to deliver 4G roaming services in rural areas. Taiwan Mobile holds a 2.55 percent stake in APT.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS