Nokia has announced that it has been selected by Taiwanese carrier Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) to expand the operator’s 5G network in Taiwan.
The Finnish vendor said that this new deal aims to support CHT’s objective of achieving 80% population coverage as well as boost 5G subscriptions to over 20% of its current subscriber base.
Nokia also noted that the expansion will leverage products from Nokia’s AirScale portfolio to deliver connectivity for people and businesses in the southern and central areas of the country.
The expansion focuses on high-traffic areas, as well as locations with high business demand, including metropolitan cities, universities, subways, high-speed rail stations, industrial parks, and exhibition halls, and over 120 highly populated tourist hotspots. CHT is also expecting to further expand its enterprise footprint by enhancing its 4G/5G coverage as well as deploying private network solutions.
CHT plans to strengthen its cooperation with leading local manufacturers for industrial 4.0 applications using solutions in 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum to meet high-throughput requirements.
“Supporting our enterprise and individual customers through advanced 5G services is an important focus for Chunghwa Telecom. We are committed to retaining our position as the number one mobile operator in Taiwan by delivering new and innovative services for our customers,” Alex Chien, president of Chunghwa Telecom’s Mobile Business Group.
Mark Atkinson, SVP, Radio Access Networks PLM at Nokia at Nokia, said: “The Taiwan mobile market is highly competitive, driven by an expectation for innovative and high-quality services demanded by subscribers. Next-generation networks are enabling the types of immersive and productivity-driven mobile services that Taiwanese people expect, so we are excited to support Chunghwa Telecom by expanding its 5G network.”
The operator was the first telco in Taiwan to receive a license for 5G services from the National Communications Commission (NCC). Chunghwa Telecom launched commercial 5G services in Taiwan based on the Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G architecture.
The telco, which had also selected Swedish vendor Ericsson as a supplier for its 5G network, expected to end 2020 with a total of 4,000 base stations.
Nokia reached 160 commercial 5G deals with individual customers and over 200 commercial 5G engagements, including paid trials.
Nokia said that a total of 63 5G networks are already live using the company’s products and solutions.
Some of its key customers include AT&T, Bell Canada, Sprint,China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, SoftBank T-Mobile US, US Cellular, Verizon, Swisscom, TDC, Telenor, Vodafone UK, O2 Germany, O2 UK, Wind , Etisalat, Optus, Orange France, Ooredoo, STC, KT, SK Telecom, Telia Company, Vodafone Italy, Telus and Telstra.
