Chunghwa Telecom

Headquarters: 
Taiwan

Taiwan’s largest telco has been one of the major players in the country gearing up for NFC, having held at least three important trials.

But like its main rivals, Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone, CHT has had to put rollout plans on hold, waiting for phones and the rest of the ecosystem to catch up with their enthusiasm for contactless mobile payment, ticketing and other applications.

Chunghwa Telecom hopes to introduce NFC services by the end of 2010 on Android phones and is counting on Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC or Taiwanese-contract device maker Foxlink to produce models by then.

Chunghwa said it hopes to have one or more NFC phones on display at the Taipei International Flora Expo, which begins in November 2010 in Taiwan’s capital, according to reports, noting HTC was likely to produce the devices for the show.

A Chunghwa project manager told NFC Times the telco will target payment and ticketing applications with the Android phones. The telco is getting some government funding for its work on Android devices as well as for development of trusted service management services for NFC applications, along with transit fare-collection company EasyCard.

Key figures: 
Financial Results 2009 2007 Change
Revenue 2,295 2,323 -1.2%
In millions of US$ for mobile operations
Customer Base 2009 2008 Change
Subscribers 9.2 8.9 3.3%
Market Share 36.3% 37.4% -2.9%
In millions
Subscriber figures for Dec. 2008 and Nov. 2009
Source: Chunghwa Telecom
Major NFC and Contactless competitors: 

Taiwan Mobile, Far EasTone

Last Updated: 
Feb 2010
Author: 
Balaban

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