Far EasTone Telecommunications (Far EasTone/FET; ) is a

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

company based in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It is the third largest behind

Chunghwa Telecom Chunghwa Telecom Company, Ltd. () (, ) is the largest integrated telecom service provider in Taiwan, and the incumbent local exchange carrier of PSTN, Mobile, and broadband services in the country. History Chunghwa Telecom was founded as ...

and

Taiwan Mobile Taiwan Mobile () is a mobile phone operator based in Taiwan. It is the second largest telecom company behind Chunghwa Telecom. History Taiwan Mobile started as part of a strategic divestment from the now defunct Pacific Electric Wire & Cable Co ...

History

Far EasTone was founded in October 1996 by the

Far Eastern Group Far Eastern Group is one of the biggest conglomerates in the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan). It was founded in 1937 by Yu-Ziang Hsu during the mainland Republican period. The group spans over 10 major industries and includes 9 publicly lis ...

, in a joint venture with

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

. The company was awarded two wireless (

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...

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 In telecommunications, a multi-band device (including (2) dual-band, (3) tri-band, (4) quad-band and (5) penta-band devices) is a communication device (especially a mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handp ...

system. Far EasTone was the first Taiwanese company to offer the Java 32K SIM Toolkit,

mobile banking Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Unlike the related internet banking it uses ...

mobile commerce The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless techno ...

, real-time access to financial, entertainment and headline news, mobile fax/mail, logo download and e-coupons. In March 1999, after fourteen months in business, Far EasTone achieved one million revenue-producing customers, faster than any other GSM operator. The company was listed on the Taiwan OTC Stock Exchange in December 2001 under the ticker code 4904 and was officially listed on the

Taiwan Stock Exchange The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE; ) is a financial institution, located in Taipei 101, in Taipei, Taiwan. The TWSE was established in 1961 and began operating as a stock exchange on 9 February 1962. It is regulated by the Financial S ...

in the electronic sector in August 2005. In September 2006, Far EasTone began providing 3G

WCDMA The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the Inte ...

services. On December 16, 2009, Far EasTone acquired

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...

licenses, 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$ The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollars ...

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 LTE services on June 3, 2014.

List of presidents

*Joseph O'Konek (May 1998 – 30 June 2002) *Jan Nilsson (1 September 2002 – September 2010) *Yvonne Li (10 September 2010 – January 2019) *Chee Ching (since 7 January 2019)

Mobile Network Information (Radio Frequency Summary)

Mergers and acquisitions

The parent company of , 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. In February 2005, Far EasTone bought a 55.3% stake in Arcoa. In May 2005, Far EasTone formally merged with Yuan-Ze Telecom. In May 2007, the company bought a 51% equity interest in Q-ware Communications to extend the scope of its wireless communications services. In August 2007,

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...

transferred its 24.5% stake in New Century Infocomm Tech company for a 3.5 per cent share of Far EasTone. On April 30, 2009, it was announced that

China Mobile China Mobile is the trade name of both China Mobile Limited () and its ultimate controlling shareholder, China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd. (, formerly known as China Mobile Communications Corporation, "CMCC"), a Chinese state-ownedSt ...

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 ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', there was a consortium seeking to buy

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

company from the private equity firm

MBK Partners MBK Partners (MBKP) is a North Asian focused private equity firm. According to Forbes, MBK Partners is one of the largest private equity firms in Asia, managing $25 billion worth of assets. Overview MBK Partners was founded in 2005 by Michael ...

LP, led by the company and

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

. FarEasTone announced in February 2022 that the company would acquire in a stock swap.

Subscribers and market share

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 Taiwan Star Telecom Corporation Limited (), doing business as T Star for short, formerly Vibo Telecom Inc. (), is a 3G mobile network operator in Taiwan. Its major operations are based in all city of Taiwan. Services Vibo was founded in 2000 ...

at 10%, and PHS at 6%.2008 Annual Report
FET. Retrieved 2016-05-01. The company, along with other leading Taiwan companies, has recently (April 29, 2016) been raising prices.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Far Eastone Members of the Conexus Mobile Alliance Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Companies based in Taipei Mobile phone companies of Taiwan Telecommunications companies of Taiwan Taiwanese brands Telecommunications companies established in 1997 1997 establishments in Taiwan Far Eastern Group