FET signs 4G hardware deal with Ericsson
Far EasTone Telecommunications (FET) is reported by Telecompaper as having reached an agreement with the local Ericsson dealer, where it will procure TWD9.8 billion ($324 million) worth of 4G equipment, and also struck an agreement with Xunwei Technologies, a Taiwanese subsidiary of the mainland’s Huawei Technologies telecoms vendor, to procure W-CDMA equipment, although no details were given on the financing. Telecompaper quoted Digitimes in the report.
In December of last year, FET was said to have made a call for tenders in a deal involving 7,000 - 8,000 4G base transceiver stations (BTS), with Ericsson, Huawei, and Finland’s Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) named as possible bidders. FET acquired LTE-suitable spectrum in the 700MHz and 1,800MHz bands following Taiwan’s frequency auction which ended in October 2013. And while it only intends to use the 700MHz band initially it was reported that it was looking at acquiring BTS capable of operating on both 700-MHz and 1,800-MHz frequencies.