Far EasTone Telecommunications had announced it would merge with Asia Pacific Telecom in a stock-swap deal last year
Taiwanese operator Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) said it is seeking to axe at least 5,000 base stations currently operated by Asia Pacific Telecom (APT) to avoid coverage overlaps following FET’s pending acquisition of APT, local newspaper Taipai Times reported.
Far EasTone president Chee Ching noted that the shutdown of these base stations will enable FET to reduce carbon emissions by about 25,000 tons annually.
FET also said that nearly 92% of Asia Pacific Telecom base stations can be integrated with its current base stations.
With the Taiwan government requiring operators to close their 3G networks in 2024, FET is also likely to decommission another 12,000 base stations in the future, according to the report.
Far EasTone noted that the energy consumed by base stations accounts for 75% of its overall power consumption, so the plan to reduce the number of base stations would contribute to the telco’s electricity saving plans.
Data centers and servers account for 23% of power consumption, while office buildings and retail stores account for 2%, according to Taipei Times.
Far EasTone expects to complete the merger with Asia Pacific Telecom as early as the third quarter of this year. The transaction is still subject to approval by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission, after the country’s National Communications Commission conditionally approved the merger in January.
Last year, Far EasTone Telecommunications had announced it would merge with Asia Pacific Telecom in a stock-swap deal.
Far EasTone said its number of customers would increase from 7.05 million to 9.2 million as a result of the merger with APT.
In December 2021, Taiwan Mobile had announced a merger with smaller competitor Taiwan Star Telecom Corp. After the two merger deals are fully completed, Taiwan will have three major telecom operators left, namely, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone.
Far EasTone Telecommunications expects its 5G subscriber penetration rate to reach 40% by the end of this year from more than 30% last year, according to recent reports.
The carrier considered that it would be reasonable to see an increase of 10 percentage points this year in the penetration rate of 5G subscribers.
Far EasTone has posted a 20% increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) from 5G subscribers’ renewals in terms of monthly fees.
FET initially launched commercial 5G services in Taiwan in July 2022.
