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China Telecom to Weigh Outsourcing to Taiwan

2011/02/24 | By Ken Liu

Taipei, Feb. 24, 2011 (CENS)--China Telecom Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu said his company will procure 60 million units of consumer-premise telecom equipment from Taiwan this year, a 33% increase from 2010's 45 million units.

Wang is leading a trade mission to visit Taiwan. His company is currently the No.1 fixed-line and No.3 mobile telecom carrier in mainland China, offering fixed-line service to 175 million subscribers and mobile service to 90.52 million subscribers throughout the mainland.

He said major products on the company's procurement list include mobile phones and tablet PCs. Besides the procurements, the company will enhance cooperation with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), HTC Corp. and VIA Telecom Inc., according to Wang.

People familiar with the cooperation deals pointed out that Wang's company has to rely on Taiwan's manufacturers to help it achieve the goal of increasing its CDMA mobile subscribers to over 100 million by the end of this year by supplying CDMA-2000 mobile phones, chips and LAN equipment.

Wang will confer with TSMC Chairman and Chief Executive Morris Chang, HTC Chairperson Cher Wang, and Kinpo Electronics Inc. Chairman Rock Hsu over cooperation. Also, he will visit Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., Taiwan Mobile Corp., Far EasTone Telecom Co., Ltd., Asia Pacific Telecom Co., Ltd., Vibo Telecom Co., Ltd., Inventec Corp., Wistron Neweb Corp., MediaTek Inc., Gemtek Technology Co., Ltd., Microelectronics Technology Inc., and ZyXEL Communications Corp.

Wang said the mainland's telecom market is very huge and his company is pushing to promote 3.5G service in the mainland, luring Taiwan's manufacturers to work with it to develop the mainland market.