Tatung Telecom to buy 200 WiMAX base stations for Kaohsiung City

Kaddy Chung, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Monday 19 November 2007]

Tatung Telecom, a WiMAX licensee for the southern region of Taiwan, plans to purchase over 200 WiMAX base stations in January 2008 for the establishment of its WiMAX network in Kaohsiung City, according to company sources.

The new purchase plan comes after Tatung Telecom, last week, signed a contract to buy 197 WiMAX base stations from NEC for part of its WiMAX infrastructure to be set up under the Taiwan government's Mobile Taiwan Program (M-Taiwan) in the southern region of Taiwan.

Tatung Telecom, which plans to kick off its WiMAX services in Kaohsiung City in October 2008, may negotiate directly with NEC for the purchase of the 200 WiMAX base stations, or solicit new offerings from other vendors through a new round of open bidding, the sources noted.

In other news, WiMAX Telecom, one of the WiMAX licensees for the northern region of Taiwan, has invited nine equipment makers to submit project plans in anticipation of the company's planned purchase of base stations for its WiMAX infrastructure.