Chunghwa Telecom, a leading mobile service provider, has selected Ericsson and Nokia to launch 5G mobile services in Taiwan.
Chunghwa Telecom aims to launch 5G mobile services in July.
Bids in Taiwan’s auction of 5G networking airwaves have exceeded NT$100 billion or $3.3 billion, Bloomberg reported in January. Taiwan has about 29 million mobile phone accounts.
Chunghwa Telecom, Far EasTone Telecommunications, Taiwan Mobile Co. and two other rivals are bidding for preliminary licenses to the spectrum in the 3.5GHz band they need to operate their future 5G networks.
The final spectrum fee total in Taiwan is expected to reach NT$114.9 billion, Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a Jan. 2 note. Taiwan had raised NT$118.7 billion from its 4G spectrum auction in 2013.
Ericsson deal
Taiwan’s largest telecom service provider will deploy a non-standalone (NSA) New Radio (NR) network on mid and high-frequency bands. It will use Ericsson Radio System base stations and Ericsson’s 5G Core, including 5G Evolved Packet Core, with Ericsson selected as the supplier for 5G Core.
This new deal includes voice services through Ericsson’s Cloud VoLTE solutions, improving network efficiency and ensuring a flexible voice service experience. Ericsson will provide the fronthaul and IP backhaul transport solution to support C-RAN architecture – infrastructure that will help CHT with a smooth evolution to 5G.
“Ericsson’s 5G core solution enables our 4G core to evolve into a shared 4G / 5G network. Ericsson’s Cloud VoLTE solution will allow our customers to enjoy a more convenient and higher quality 4G voice service as well as 5G voice services,” Max Chen, president of the Mobile Business Group, Chunghwa Telecom, said.
Ericsson’s 5G platform will include Ericsson Radio System base stations that will operate on 3.5GHz for the mid-band and 28GHz for the high band. The 5G solution will also include active antenna products while supporting beam-forming functions that reduce wireless signal interference and improve 5G speed.
Chunghwa Telecom will benefit from increased capacity and improved 5G user experience through 4G/5G dual connectivity and LTE-NR DL data aggregation functions. The solution will enable more effective management of data traffic, simplified operations, and innovative applications, such as network slicing and edge computing.
Ericsson’s 5G core solution will support both 4G and 5G core networks to smoothly connect Chunghwa Telecom’s previous services to 5G. Other functionality includes automated capacity management and a high-performance user plane control that can meet the needs of 5G usage while providing an open application program interface.
Ericsson Orchestrator will allow for more efficient management of core, access and transport networks, as well as the automatic management of the network slicing function – enabling users to reduce the time to launch 5G services from weeks to hours.
Nokia
Nokia said it is responsible for 5G radio network deployment in the Central and Southern Region of Taiwan.
Nokia will leverage Chunghwa Telecom’s existing LTE install base and spectrum resources to launch 5G non-standalone (NSA) involving multiple bands, paving the way to 5G standalone (SA) in the near future.
