Far EasTone

Far EasTone Telecommunications (Far EasTone/FET; ) is a telecommunications company based in Taiwan. It is the third largest behind Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile.

Far EasTone was founded in October 1996 by the Far Eastern Group, in a joint venture with AT&T. The company was awarded two wireless (GSM 900 and GSM 1800) service licenses in January 1997. The following year, Far EasTone launched its service and became the first company to introduce a fully integrated dual band system. and from December 22 began offering WiMAX transmission services. On October 30, 2013, Taiwan's LTE standard license bidding closed with Far EasTone paying NT$31.315 billion for the LTE frequency bands (700 MHz A2/1800 MHz C3, C4), with a total bandwidth of 30 MHz. Far EasTone launched 4G LTE services on June 3, 2014 and 5G NR services in 2020.

FrequencyTechnology TypeBandBandwidthAttributes2100 MHzLTE A, WCDMA1UMTS/WCDMA service was terminated on 31 Dec 2018. , This frequency was refarmed to LTE to increase capacity during times of congestion.700 MHzLTE A282x10 MHzThis frequency is to provide supplemental coverage in areas where the 1800 MHz or 2600 MHz frequencies are weak or non existent. (Acquired from digital TV spectrum auction after analogue TV was switched off).1800 MHzLTE A32x20 MHzMain LTE band for most services.2600 MHzLTE A72x20 MHzThis frequency acts as a capacity booster to supplement the 1800 MHz frequency in certain areas.2600 MHzLTE A3825 MHzSame frequency as band 7, but using TD LTE modulation to increase download capacity in high traffic areas.3.5 GHzNRn7880 MHzDeploying/in progress28 GHzNRn257400 MHzRecent won in a spectrum auction in early 2020. In trial.

The parent company of KG Telecom, NTT Docomo, reportedly proposed in 2003 that KG Telecom and Far EasTone swap shares in a merger. A deal was reached in that July, only to fall through in August. Another round of negotiations produced a second agreement in October 2003. In April 2004, the merger was finalized, and became the largest ever acquisition in the Taiwanese telecom industry. On April 30, 2009, it was announced that China Mobile would invest up to 12 per cent into the company. The amount of foreign ownership was projected to be: NTT DoCoMo at 4.1 per cent, SingTel at 3.5 per cent, China Mobile at 12 per cent. On April 27, 2012, Singtel sold its 3.98% share of Far EasTone. On April 18, 2013, China Mobile announced the termination of a stake in Far EasTone, though the parties signed a bilateral cooperation agreement. According to a July 5, 2015 article in The Wall Street Journal, there was a consortium seeking to buy cable television company China Network Systems from the private equity firm MBK Partners LP, led by the company and Morgan Stanley. FarEasTone announced in February 2022 that the company would acquire 亞太電信 in a stock swap, resulting on the merger between two telecom.

The total number of subscribers between the Company and KGT was 6.13 million at the end of December 2008. In the Taiwan mobile market (2 & 3G) the market shares were as follows: Chunghwa Telecom at 35%, Taiwan Mobile at 25%, Far EasTone at 24%, Asia Pacific Telecom and Vibo Telecom at 10%, and PHS at 6%. The company, along with other leading Taiwan companies, has recently (April 29, 2016) been raising prices.