Taiwan is expected to reach a 5G penetration rate of nearly 30% by the end of this year, local new site Digitimes reported, citing industry sources.
According to the report, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) currently leads the Taiwanese 5G market, with nearly 1 million subscribers. The operator is expected to reach 2 million 5G customers by the end of the year.
The carrier currently operates a total of 8,000 5G base stations, with plans to expand this figure to 10,000 by the end of the year, according to the sources.
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.
Meanwhile, Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) has already secured over 800,000 5G subscribers and expects 5G service users to account for 30% of its total mobile services by the end of 2021. The company has already deployed over 7,000 5G base stations, with its coverage reaching 75% of the total population in Taiwan.
In March, FET selected Ericsson as its vendor for 5G Standalone (SA) and Non-standalone (NSA) dual-mode 5G Core and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services. As part of the deal, Ericsson is supporting FET in the expansion of its 5G NSA capabilities and SA evolution on the low, mid- and high-band frequencies.
Taiwan Mobile, currently has 800,000 subscribers in the 5G segment and aims to increase its 5G penetration rate to 30% by the end of the year, according to the report.
Taiwan Mobile had partnered with Nokia to launch its 5G network. The telco had acquired 60 megahertz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band and 200 megahertz of the 28 GHz frequency.
Meanwhile, Asia Pacific Telecom (ATP) and Taiwan Star Telecom aim to boost the number of their 5G services to 400,000 and 500,000, respectively, by the end of this year.
In March, Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) gave conditional approval for Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT) to share Far EasTone Telecommunications Co’s (FET) 5G frequencies using its own 5G network. In September 2020, FET and APT had announced a partnership to provide 5G services on Taiwan’s 3.5 GHz frequency band.
The two operators have committed to deploy 2,000 additional base stations to expand their 5G coverage. Under this plan, FET aims to install 500 5G base stations and 1,000 4G sites within one to two years, while APT is expected build 500 4G base stations.
