Taiwanese operator Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) has obtained the second 5G license issued by the National Communications Commission (NCC), local newspaper Taiwan News reported.
Last week, Chunghwa Telecom had secured the country’s first 5G license from NCC.
Both operators said they would be able to launch commercial 5G services on July 1.
Operators are required to deploy 250 5G base stations before they can offer the next-generation mobile service. Chunghwa Telecom, which expects to launch 5G based on the non-standalone (NSA) variant, has been deploying 5G base stations in the municipalities of Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung.
NCC is currently reviewing applications from Taiwan Mobile, Taiwan Star Telecom and Asia Pacific Telecom. The regulator said that these three applications were still at an early stage.
In March, Far EasTone has selected Ericsson to be its 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) vendor in a deal that will span all of FET’s spectrum assets in the low, mid and high bands. The operator stated that using Ericsson for 5G services will reduce the complexity of the migration for 4G to 5G, because the operator was already working with Ericsson as the sole vendor for its 4G LTE network.
As part of the rollout, Ericsson Spectrum Sharing and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered radio access network solutions will be deployed. The Ericsson Spectrum Sharing will help FET to allocate spectrum assets efficiently based on traffic demand using existing infrastructure, while the AI-driven software capabilities will increase 5G coverage and 4G performance, said the company.
FET had previously secured 80 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band and 400 megahertz in the 28 GHz band. The telco expects to launch its 5G network in partnership with Ericsson.
Chunghwa Telecom had secured 90 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band and 600 megahertz in the 28 GHz band.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star Telecom have also secured spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band during the January auction, while Asia Pacific Telecom only acquired frequencies in the 28 GHz band.
