Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星) yesterday said that it aims to offer more affordable and flexible rates than its rivals to increase its 5G penetration to 10 percent of its total customers next year, up from 5 percent.
With affordable 5G rates as low as NT$399 per month and an unlimited data package for NT$799 per month, the company has accumulated 100,000 5G users since it began offering the service in August, Taiwan Star said in a statement.
The nation’s three biggest telecoms have garnered 300,000 5G users each thus far, the companies have said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Star Telecom Corp
Taiwan Star said that it would also push its 5G rates to a new low, as no minimum monthly payment would be required for users who sign up for its service plan on the company’s Web site.
The rates would be based on data usage and voice traffic, the company said.
As the nation’s 5G network coverage is largely limited to populous areas, Taiwan Star said that its subscribers should pay two different rates depending on whether they are using 4G or 5G networks. That is different from the rates charged by other telecoms, which disregard which networks subscribers use.
The firm expects its new rates to boost its 5G subscriptions by 15 percent and its revenue growth, Taiwan Star vice president Shing Chu (朱曉幸) said.
Taiwan Star said that its 5G coverage would reach 80 percent in populous areas by the end of this year.
The firm budgeted NT$5 billion (US$175.1 million) on capital spending this year and more next year, mostly on deploying 5G base stations, Taiwan Star president Cliff Lai (賴弦五) told the Chinese-language Commercial Times on Monday.
Taiwan Star has a 5G availability rate of 14.8 percent, similar to bigger rivals Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) 16.2 percent and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd’s (遠傳電信) 18.6 percent, a report on Taiwan’s 5G users’ experience released by Opensignal Ltd on Monday showed.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) is well ahead of its rivals with the best 5G availability of 26.5 percent, the report said.
However, Taiwan Star had the slowest average 5G download speed at 150.9 megabits per second (Mpbs), compared with Far EasTone’s 351.5 Mpbs, Chunghwa Telecom’s 254.2 Mbps and Taiwan Mobile’s 236.5Mbps, it said.
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